Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 19 of the Tour de France - a short, sharp, sadistic schlep from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to the ski resort of La Toussuire. The 138km stage includes four big climbs and should see fireworks from the outset. We're live from 12:20 UK time - bring it on!

And that quartet looks to be sitting up. Gautier is burying himself to join the leaders ahead of a little group just out ahead of the yellow jersey group. Froome is waiting to see if he has any team-mates left...

The road has flattened out quite a bit now as they main part of that descent is complete. A group is forming, but the two leaders - Uran and Bardet - still have 22 seconds to play with. They have been joined by Rodriguez and Rolland, though.

Bardet has been caught by Uran. They have 23 seconds over the yellow jersey pack.

Bardet has 20 seconds now on the main pack, which is being led by Kruijswijk and Rodriguez. Uran is in between. Thomas and Konig are back in the main pack, which is nevertheless stretched out in single file for this long, twisting, technical descent.

It has stopped raining and the sun is back out. The road is dry too, so it must have just been a very localised shower in the other valley.

Bardet now leads the race with Uran following behind. The Frenchman is such a good descender - as yesterday showed - and he's using it again to move ahead of everyone else in this race. The yellow jersey group is just 15 seconds back, though.

Froome has caught Nibali on the descent - they're followed by Valverde, Poels and Quintana. It's very stretched out so we'll have to see how things pan out. Kruijswijk is leading with Uran and Bardet chasing on. The Thomas group is about 20 seconds back.

This is a long 20km descent down to La Chambre, followed by another 30km in the valley where Sky will hope to regroup ahead of the Glandon/Croix de Fer. They will need to because Froome is very, very isolated right now.

Rodriguez takes the points ahead of Kruijswijk and Sicard at the top to extend his lead in the KOM competition. We then has Nibali, Plaza and Teklehaimanot. 10 points to Purito, who is now 10 clear of bardet. This descent will be crucial - and we'll get a better idea of the devastation behind once we're at the bottom.

Geraint Thomas has been dropped by the yellow jersey group so Froome only has Poels now.

Nibali, Scarponi, Kruijswijk and Rodriguez are together on the front.

Behind the Astana duo we have Europcar pair Gautier and Sicard - but it's all coming back with the yellow jersey closing in. Not long till the summit now.

Astana pair Nibali and Michele Scarponi drive the break - which features about 20 riders but leads the main pack by just 17 seconds. Nicolas Roche is the latest Sky rider to be dropped. Froome now only has Wout Poels and Geraint Tomas.

Loads of riders are suffering here - the likes of Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) and Sammy Sanchez (BMC) among a long list of riders off the back.

Richie Porte has already been dropped by the main pack - and that is just what these attacks are designed for, to isolate Froome from his Sky team-mates. Very interesting...

Nibali has joined the leading group which is 20 seconds ahead of the pack. Contador and Valverde have attacked again.

Valverde and Geraint Thomas (Sky) reacted to reel Contador in - sparking an attack from Vincenzo Nibali of Astana.

ATTACK: Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) pings off the front! Reaction from Sky initially, but then they let him go. Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) then has a pop, as does Bauke Mollema (Trek), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo).

Peter Sagan has been caught by the Sky-led peloton. And it has started to rain very heavily...

Alberto Losada (Katusha) has been doing much of the pace-setting in the break for his team-mate Rodriguez, the polka dot jersey. Previous stage winner Ruben Plaza (Lampre) is there, as are Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Martin/Talansky from Cannondale-Garmin. The gap is still just 35 seconds.

More riders trying to edge clear of the peloton, including Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep), Steve Cummings (MTN) and Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar).