Hello and welcome to live coverage of Stage 15 of the Tour de France - an intriguingly undulating 181.5km ride from Millau to Carcassonne as the riders leave the Massif Central and head through the Black Mountains to the Languedoc region of south-west France.

Geraint Thomas is back with the peloton after dropping back for a call of nature alongside fellow Welshman Luke Rowe. A lull while the yellow jersey was taking some time out has seen the gap for the breakaway grow to seven minutes.

Apologies for the slight delay - just had to nip out to pick up some lunch. No change as the riders negotiate a long, sweeping downhill. The road will head back up on a short rolling segment before this descent towards the intermediate sprint continues. Expect to see that man Peter Sagan take the points in the sprint - he's currently on the front of the break doing his thing. The Sky-led pack trails at 6'10".

It's all over for Lilian Calmejane, who sits up and waits for his team-mates in the breakaway. That was an odd move - and could well have jeopardised his chances of winning the stage today on his home roads. The gap back to the Sky-led peloton is still around the 6'40" mark.

In the four times the Tour has come to Carcassonne the stage has been won by a solo breakaway - something which bodes well for Calmejane. The last rider to do so was Yaroslav Popovych of Ukraine, who finished 27 seconds ahead of Alessandro Ballan in Stage 12 from Luchon.

According to French TV, Calmejane's attack was not planned. Questioned by former Direct Energie rider (and current TC pundit) Thomas Voeckler on the motorbike for France Televisions, the team's sport director Benoit Genauzeau admitted that Calmejane’s solo move from the bottom of Col de Sie was entirely improvised. "Lilian knows the roads at perfection,” he said. "He has taken a big risk. The other breakaway riders can't be underestimated. There are three strong teams there. But there wasn't much to do to stop him." Personally, I think it was a suicide vanity move. But we'll see.

Calmejane is cheered by the fans lining the streets of a small town he passes through with a gap of 1'10" over the chasing 28-man break. The peloton is 6'45" in arrears but that man Arnaud Demare has managed to fight back on. Our lone leader is approaching the Col de la Bassine which is not categorised but has been used as a Cat.3 climb before in the Tour, albeit in the opposite direction (which is much harder).

"You could have lent me your yellow sunglasses too."

We spoke to Lilian Calmejane this morning ahead of the stage: "Today smells like home. It's rough roads and difficult climbs and strong southern accents. I hope the winner today will have such an accent - there are only a few of us in this Tour. Just Anthony Perez and me. I'm hoping it will be a good day for me. I know this stage well, I did a recon ahead of the stage on a very windy day. The Pic do Nore is a tough climb and the decent will have sidewinds. But I'm not going to get too excited - there are still 20km after the descent, which itself it quite sketchy, and they will be difficult. You will need to have energy in reserve if you want to win in Carcassonne." Despite all that, though, he's gone on a solo attack with 125km remaining!

Over the top of the Col de Sie goes lone leader Lilian Calmejane to pocket the 5pts at the summit. Behind there's a bit of movement as Serge Pauwels leads the chase. The Belgian is currently third in the KOM standings and adds another 3pts there to move onto 66pts. Alaphilippe leads still on 93pts with Barguil on 70pts. Tom Skujins took third place behind Pauwels - the Latvian was in polka dots early in the race but those 2pts will only increase his tally to 8pts.

This is an impressive effort from Calmejane, who probably hoped that some other riders came with him when he rode clear. Perhaps they didn't because they felt he was crazy to attack such a large group from so far out - but he does know the roads and so this could play into his hand. His gap is up to 1'15" now.

Here's why there are no UAE Team Emirates riders in the break. Their directeur sportif told letour.fr this morning: "It’s useless to break away because we have no chance to win. We’d better keep our strengths for the Pyrenees. Dan Martin knows them well and it should suit him more than the Alps. Why not targeting a second stage win?"

Some would say that this stage had Lilian Calmejane's name written all over it...

The gap is up to five minutes now for the Calmejane, who leads his fellow escapees by 50 seconds on this second categorised climb of the day.

It's perhaps understandable that Sky and LottoNL-Jumbo aren't involved in this break, but a massive hash for Lotto Soudal, Katusha-Alpecin, UAE Team Emirates and Wanty-Groupe Gobert to have missed out on this one and a chance to win the stage.

As the break starts the Cat.2 Col de Sie (10.2km at 4.9&) there's an attack from Lilian Calmejane of Direct Energie. An odd decision from the French youngster to go so early but he's riding on his local roads and so perhaps feels suitably inspired.

Courtesy of letour.fr here are the names of the 29 riders in the break: Daniel Martínez (EF Education First), Silvan Dillier (Ag2r La Mondiale), Nikias Arndt (Team Sunweb), Amäel Moinard and Florian Vachon (Fortuneo - Samsic), Sonny Colbrelli, Ion Izagirre and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain - Merida), Damian Howson and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton - Scott), Daniele Bennati, Imanol Erviti and Marc Soler (Movistar Team), Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team), Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step Floors), Peter Sagan, Rafal Majka and Pawel Poljanski (Bora - Hansgrohe), Magnus Cort and Michael Valgren (Astana Pro Team), Serge Pauwels (Team Dimension Data), Arthur Vichot (Groupama - FDJ), Lilian Calmejane, Fabian Grellier and Romain Sicard (Direct Energie), Bauke Mollema, Julien Bernard and Toms Skujins (Trek - Segafredo) and Jesús Herrada (Cofidis).

The situation is as follows:

The gap is quickly up to three minutes for this 29-man break. Some interesting names here, most notably Van Avermaet, Calmejane, Majka, Mollema, Pauwels, Pozzovivo, Ion Izagirre, Sagan, Valgren, Nielsen, Soler, Colbrelli and Terpstra...

I think that's it: Sky have shut things down on the front of the pack, who now trail the leading move by 40 seconds. The best placed rider in the break is Greg van Avermaet, and he's 29 minutes down on GC.

It's relentless out there. A group of 30 riders have managed to open up a small gap on the rolling roads. A handful of riders then darted clear of the main pack, which is now being controlled by Sky. So, this could be the move that sticks. Let's wait and see who's in it - Domenico Pozzovivo certainly is, and Sagan now.

Cofidis have taken things up and Barguil is right on the nose, too. You sense that something must happen soon, but the latest to force a shake-out by Daniel Oss came to nothing.