Hello and welcome to live coverage of Stage 12 of the Tour de France - a 175.5km ride from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Alpe d'Huez via the Col de la Madeleine, the Lacets de Montvernier and the Col de la Croix de Fer. It's going to be as stunning as it is difficult.

Remember that Pierre Latour is riding solo half a minute or so up the road from the main pack -perhaps Bardet is planning an attack so he can link up with his team-mate? Meanwhile, Adam Yates is the latest GC rider to be distanced.

Nieve, who came so close to winning yesterday, has joined Majka and Barguil in pursuit of Kruijswijk, who is 2km away from the summit with a gap of 2’40” to play with.

It’s Marc Soler and Mathias Frank who are working hard for Movistar and Ag2R-La Mondiale on the front. Mikel Landa is also prominent – just ahead of Romain Bardet – as the gap comes down to six minutes. Froome and Thomas only seem to have Bernal with them now – Poels, Castroviejo and Kwiatkowski seem to have blown. No, my mistake, the Pole is still there.

There’s a change on the front of the main pack as Ag2R-La Mondiale and Movistar come to the front to up the tempo and put Sky under pressure. Oliver Naesen, the former Belgian champion, is putting in a huge shift to distance a Sky rider or two. Suddenly their aura of invincibility disappears a touch. Meanwhile, Gorka Izagirre has been swept up from the break.

The chasers are beginning to split up as Amador drops back with Zakarin. Majka and Barguil ride clear of Valverde, Nieve and Gesink in pursuit of the lone leader.

Another one bites the dust: Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) has just abandoned. At this rate we’re going to have a sprint between Peter Sagan and Christophe Laporte on the Champs Elysees.

Kruijswijk is very much a flying Dutchman. He has 2’30” on the nine chasers, 4’20” on Latour and 6’05” on the main pack.

The last Dutchman to win on Alpe d’Huez was Gert-Jan Theunisse in 1989 when he soloed away on the Croix de Fer, crested the summit with 1’30” then held on up the famous 21 hairpins. Will history repeat itself today?

We may have not heard of the last withdrawal or KO today. Not looking good for the Colombian double stage winner and his lead-out man…

Lone leader Steven Kruijswijk takes on some food from his LottoNL-Jumbo team car. The 31-year-old Dutchman came so close to winning the Giro a couple of years ago and is only 2'40" down on GC to is riding high in the virtual yellow saddle. He now has 1'10" on the chasers, 2'25" on Pierre Latour and 5'30" on the main pack, which is still being controlled by Sky (minus Moscon and Rowe).

Kruijswijk is back climbing again and his gap has grown to 40 seconds after that slight descent. He's committed to this now.

Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) has just abandoned. Yet another big name sprinter to throw in the towel. Perhaps there's an illness going round - or they are just knackered from these stages in the Alps. The German veteran is not the only one: Poland's Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe) has also called it a day.

Lone leader Kruijswijk reaches the top of the ridge that marks the (almost) half way point of this climb. He has about 20 seconds to play with. Behind we have Valverde, Zakarin, Nieve, Barguil, Majka, Izagirre, Rolland, Gesink, Martinez and Amador.

Meanwhile, 18 minutes back there are three German riders fighting their own battle to stay in the race: Rik Zabel, Andre Greipel and Marcel Sieberg. Greipel will be keen to stay in because he'll fancy himself in some of the remaining sprints - what with three of his rivals now out - while Zabel yesterday came four seconds beyond the cut but was shown some leniency.

Steven Kruijswijk decides that the pace is not high enough and the Dutchman goes for a long one. That's ambitious, but perhaps the team has ideas beyond him winning the stage, what with Roglic back with the favourites and Gesink in play too.

We’ve also just heard that double stage winner Dylan Groenewegen has abandoned too. That will be a blow for the Dutchman ahead of Dutch Corner today. He won on the Champs Elysees last year and was coming into some solid form – until he crashed heavily in the stage to Roubaix.

Some withdrawals to bring you up to date with. Tony Gallopin, who is ill and was struggling off the back from the outset today, has withdrawn. So that means Bardet only has four Ag2R-La Mondiale team-mates left with him. Ouch.

It’s a larger group of 11 riders now on the front of the break as the cream comes to the top. They are: Kruijswijk, Valverde, Zakarin, Nieve, Barguil, Majka, Izagirre, Rolland, Gesink, Martinez and Amador. A very tasty composition.

It’s Moscon and Poels who set the tempo for Sky, then Castroviejo, Kwiatkowski, Froome, the yellow jersey of Thomas, then Bernal just behind and ahead of the Movistar duo of Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana.

The gap is up to 4’30” for the four leaders as the pack close in on Julian Alaphilippe, the polka dot jersey and Stage 10 winner, who sat back from the break following the last climb. Barguil, oddly, rides of the road momentarily. What was that about?

Here comes Barguil. The Frenchman bridges over to the leading trio and comes alongside his fellow countryman Rolland without even saying a word. It’s fair to say that there’ll be no national alliance out there. Rolland has already won on Alpe d’Huez before and Barguil wants to join him in the history books. But first, the small matter of this 29km monster.