Bonjour le Tour! Hello and welcome to live coverage of Stage 7 of the Tour de France - at 230km it's the longest of the race.

Meanwhile, the gap is up to 3'30" for the two leaders. Offredo is a specialist in this kind of futile break - and we praise him for it. Someone has to do it - and riding out ahead does reduce the chances of coming a cropper like Van Garderen.

Nasty cuts to Van Garderen's face and knees. He's back on his bike but today is going to be utter purgatory for the American.

CRASH! And a nasty one... a road partition took out a few of the EF Education First riders, most notably Tejay van Garderen. The pace was slow and they clearly weren't paying attention...

Just the two riders off the front, then, with no one opting to follow French duo Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) and Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Gobert). They quickly build up a couple of minutes.

And they're off! The remaining 174 riders get this long stage under way... and we have some attacks from the gun from two plucky riders...

Here's the profile today - and all I can say is good luck to the commentary team... Just three lower-category climbs ahead of the flat run to the finish.

Yesterday, Italy’s Giulio Ciccone was denied victory by Belgium’s Dylan Teuns in Stage 6 at La Super Planche des Belles Filles but took over the race lead from Julian Alaphilippe in dramatic circumstances - by just six seconds - on the first summit finish of the Tour de France. It was also a good day for Geraint Thomas, who put down a marker in the defence of his Tour crown.