Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 1 of the 2016 Tour de France! The wait is over, the riders are ready - and the show is about to get on the road with this hotly anticipated 188km opening stage from Mont-Saint-Michel to Utah Beach with a ding-dong bunch sprint and the race's first yellow jersey up for grabs.

Here's the top ten from today's stage with most of the big guns present and correct.

Peter Sagan looked to have that one in the bag... then Marcel Kittel came through... but Cavendish proved the strongest in the end to soar through and take the first yellow jersey of the race - what a win for the Dimension Data rider.

Victory for Mark Cavendish!

Crash!

Under the flamme rouge now... and it's Etixx and Dimension Data on the front...

This is a long, long straight drag to the line. Lotto and Katusha on the front now...

LottoNL-Jumbo now come to the fore for Dylan Groenewegen...

Lotto-Soudal, Etixx-QuickStep, Sky, Dimension Data and Katusha have men on the front now, with Giant-Alpecin getting primed for John Degenkolb.

Now Etixx up the tempo and it's curtains for the two leaders. Wow, that was quick. Meanwhile, there's a crash on a tight bend which takes down Timo Roosen (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie).

Now 18 seconds for Delaplace and Howes - they're holding on, but the teams have yet to really combine in leading the chase...

Still 20 seconds for these two plucky escapees - there must be a fairly strong headwind because the pace is not so high at the moment.

Etixx-QuickStep and Lotto-Soudal are on the front now for their sprinters Kittel and Greipel. Movistar (or is it Orica-BikeExchange?) are up there with Sky as well, while Tinkoff surround the battered Alberto Contador in the middle of the pack.

The peloton is riding as one and is fairly compact as it holds the lead to 25 seconds for the two leaders. No sprint trains forming just yet but it's bound to get fairly feisty soon. Meanwhile, Alex Howes puts in a dig in a bid to drop Delaplace - they're both keen on the red dossard and 5000-euro check for the day's combativity award.

Bike change for Tejay Van Garderen of BMC. Doesn't look like he was involved in a crash of anything rum, mind.

The gap has gone back to 28 seconds for the leaders - the peloton clearly deciding to ease up in fear of provoking some counter-attacks.

Japanese pocket-rocker Yukiya Arashiro (Lampre-Merida) hits the deck after a touch of wheels. He's ok though - looks more sheepish than injured after that slow-speed spill.

The pack is back on the coast ahead of a brief stint inland ahead of the finale in Normandy. The finish will be fast: there is no bend for the last five kilometres so it's going to be a monster of a sprint - albeit one perhaps tempered by a headwind coming off the coast at Utah Beach. 10 seconds now for the two leaders...

The carrots are almost cooked for our two leaders - but there's still a long way to go so perhaps we'll see a counter-attack from some riders...

A final Contador video shows the Spaniard receiving treatment from Mick Hucknall / Leo Sayer / Art Garfunkle / Yvette Horner (delete as appropriate).

Back with the break and the two remaining escapees - Howes and Delaplace - continue riding in defiance of the pack. They have 45 seconds to play with. This duo were the last two to attack from the peloton this morning, in pursuit of Voss, Barta and Howard. The latter three have sat up but Howes and local rider Delaplace continue...