Bonjour le Tour! Yes, hello, and welcome to live coverage of stage two of the Grande Boucle - another one for the sprinters, although what with all that drama yesterday, we all know that anything can happen on the Tour...

While Chavanel ploughs a lonely furrow why not watch all the highlights and analysis from our friends at GCN, who dissected those crashes and mechanicals that thwarted some of the yellow jersey favourites yesterday...

If you missed it, this was the big talking point in yesterday's stage...

The gap is up to 3'50" for Sylvain Chavanel, whose manager celebrates his 62nd birthday today. Now I know just what would be the best present... but it's also about as unlikely as a Cavendish win on Alpe d'Huez.

Of course, the big loser of all this is Nairo Quintana. Tellingly, the Colombian was isolated after his mechanical - and it wasn't until much later on that Andrey Amador picked him up and rode with him to the finish. Quintana entered the race supposedly on level footing with Movistar team-mates Mikel Landa and Alejandro Valverde - but already he's over a minute behind his team-mates, and with Movistar hardly a force in the TTT, he can expect to be further behind his GC rivals come Monday evening.

Quick-Step Floors, Team Sky and Movistar front the peloton in that order - the former team because they have the yellow jersey and aspirations for the stage win, the other two because of the desire to keep their GC men out of trouble. With what happened yesterday, any gains that Team Sky may make in the TTT tomorrow will be wiped out by the deficit Froome already has on GC. The same can be said for Porte and Yates, both of whom should fare well tomorrow with BMC and Mitchelton-Scott. It all plays into the hands of Romain Bardet, Vincenzo Nibali and Rigo Uran, all of whom will probably concede time in the TTT.

Belgian national champion Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors) has been setting the tempo on the front of the pack. He was chewing the fat with Luke Rowe of Team Sky just now - perhaps about the pace, which the Welshman may think is unnecessarily high. Movistar are up there too - mindful of their bad day yesterday where Quintana was caught out in the finale with that mechanical. Meanwhile, it's a rear wheel change for Richie Porte of BMC. The Australian was caught out in one of those crashes yesterday and finished alongside Froome and Yates, 51 seconds down. Gap up to 3'40" for Chavanel.

One rider we didn't see in the sprint yesterday is Mark Cavendish. The Britain avoided the crashes in the finale but he broke a chain, apparently, and was unable to contest the sprint. His target this year is to get closer to Eddy Merckx's record of 34 stage wins - he's currently on 30 - and he's gone on record to say that he has no aspirations to win a second green jersey. Watch Matt Stephens' interview with the Manx Missile below...

Chavanel cuts a lonely figure as he continues his long solo ride out ahead of the pack, having been jettisoned by his fellow escapees Gogl and Smith. The 39 year old is a triple stage winner on the Tour but hasn't tasted success since 2010. This is his 18th and final Tour - a record that sees him move about Stuart O'Grady and Jens Voigt, who rode 17 Tours. Chavanel's gap is up to 3'10".

I mentioned Lawson Craddock earlier. The American seems to be back with the peloton despite struggling earlier on. Yesterday he updated his followers on Twitter about his injuries - and an amazing gesture he's making in deciding to fight on. Chapeau... and to think that Neymar is also classified as a 'sportsman'.

I told you so...

Confirmation from the Tour organisers that, as both Ledanois and Smith have one point in the KOM standings, it will be the rider who is highest on GC who will wear the polka dot jersey tomorrow. That may well explain why Smith has decided to call it a day. There's no point blowing a gasket in a doomed break if it means he's dropped by the peloton and then loses the chance to wear the maillot a pois tomorrow. The New Zealander does have 3'02" on Ledanois in the standings, but you never know...

The break has completely crumbled now. With that polka dot jersey in the bag, Smith has dropped back now leaving just Chavanel out ahead, while Gogl is almost with the peloton now following his treatment from the doctor. So, it's the man riding a record 18th Tour de France who rides on his own now, 2'40" clear of the peloton. It could be a long day for Sylvain Chavanel...

The road carried on uphill after the summit of the categorised climb - and Michael Gogl has dropped back to see the race doctor, apparently with some kind of insect sting. He's currently spraying his right knee with something.

The break has started the Cat.4 Cote de Pouzauges (1km at 3.9km). And it's only a short uphill grind - with Dion Smith of Wanty-Groupe Gobert taking the spoils over the top. And we're hearing that it will be the New Zealander who will now take the polka dot jersey by virtue of being well above Kevin Ledanois in the overall standings.

Here was the moment the riders rolled out of Mouilleron-Saint-Germain.

We're going to pass a lot of these today...

Three Quick-Step Floors team-mates of Fernando Gaviria front the peloton, with Tim Declercq setting the tempo and the Luxembourg champion Bob Jungels also fairly prominent. Gaviria, however, is currently off the back of the pack with a team-mate after apparently paying a visit to the team car or answering a call of nature. The gap is 2'40" for the three escapees.

The final jersey to update you with is the white jersey for the young riders' classification. Gaviria, who won on his Tour debut yesterday, leads that competition but it's the Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen of LottoNL-Jumbo - who finished sixth in the sprint - who wears white by default. He's 10 seconds down on Gaviria by virtue of those bonuses.

Not far to the only climb of the day, the Cat.4 Cote de Pouzauges. A reminder that it's the Frenchman Kevin Ledanois who is in polka dots after starring in the break yesterday. His tally of a single KOM point will be matched by one of Chavanel, Smith and Gogl very soon.

Meanwhile, our three-man break now have 2'25" over the pack.

One sprinter we didn't see yesterday - didn't see in the sprint, that is - was Arnaud Demare of Groupama-FDJ. He went down in that crash 11km from the finish, and while he wasn't hurt, he didn't bother to waste energy fighting back on, preferring to keep his powder dry for today. Demare is currently off the back of the peloton with a mechanical issue. He'll be hoping to bounce back today.