Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 20 of the Tour de France - the all-important short and sharp 110.5km ride from Modane to Alpe d'Huez. The riders tackle two monster climbs - the Croix de Fer and the famous 21 hairpin bends of Alpe d'Huez, the Dutch Mountain.

There are 75 KOM points available today - 25 for each climb and another 25 as a bonus for the winner. It's going to be a big ask for Bardet because you sense Froome will want to win this one and seal up the Tour in style.

There's an intermediate sprint at Bourg d'Oisans today ahead of the deciding climb but it probably won't be contested: Peter Sagan is leading the competition by over 100 points and is all but certain to pick up a fourth consecutive green jersey in Paris tomorrow. The top five are: Sagan 420, Andre Greipel 316, John Degenkolb 281, Mark Cavendish 191 and that man Froome on 128.

Alexandre Geniez (FDJ), Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin), Lars Bak (Lotto-Soudal) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) now have 1:40 over the peloton after the pace eased up with the pack.

We will have numerous battles out there today - for the stage, for the yellow jersey and also, for the king of the mountains competition. Yesterday, Frenchman Romain Bardet - winner of stage 18 at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - prised the polka dot jersey off the shoulders of Joaquim Rodriguez. Bardet leads Chris Froome in the KOM standings by just three points, with Rodriguez 12 points back: Bardet 90, Froome 87, Rodriguez 78.

This leading quartet has 20 seconds with Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep) leading the peloton on this fast downhill slog.

Simon Geschke, the German who won in Pra Loup three days ago, is chasing from the peloton as well as Pippo Pozzato of Lampre-Merida.

It's Nicolas Edet for Cofidis and Lars Bak for Lotto-Soudal. This quartet have opened up a small gap.

The first 25km of today's stage are downhill ahead of the first of two climbs. It was Alexandre Geniez of FDJ who made that move, taking Ramunas Navardauskas (Cannondale-Garmin) with him. There are riders from Cofidis and Lotto-Soudal there too.

They're off! And there's a flurry of activity right from the outset with an attack by an FDJ rider...

The remaining 160 riders are rolling through the neutral zone in Modane ahead of today's official start. After heavy showers overnight, the sun is out and it's 23 degrees Celsius.

Quintana's attack on the final climb yesterday reduced his deficit on leader Chris Froome to 2:38 ahead of today's final day in the mountains. The Colombian's Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde is third at 5:25 but will have to look over his shoulder at Astana's Nibali, who is 6:44 down and will hope to end on the podium in Paris.

Nibali won his stage in controversial circumstances, however, after the Italian made his decisive attack just as Froome pulled to the side of the road with a mechanical issue. The yellow jersey confronted his rival after the stage and heated words were exchanged... it was also a tough day for Froome with regards to the fans, with an old man caught abusing him and another fan caught spitting on the Team Sky rider. Read all about it in our daily Tour de Farce blog below...

Yesterday the defending champion Vincenzo Nibali finally left his mark on the Tour de France with victory at La Toussuire on a day Nairo Quintana took 32 seconds back on the yellow jersey, Chris Froome.