Bonjour le Tour! Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 1 of the 2017 Tour de France - kicking off with a 14km time trial in Dusseldorf in Germany.

So, after all a long wait and after all the sizzling build up, here we are for the 104th edition of the Grande Boucle and... it's raining. Things have eased up a little since this morning - when it was really cats and dogs - but the wet conditions are going to make it difficult for the riders out there, with with around eight or nine slippery bends to negotiate on this fast but occasionally technical, and almost pan-flat course.