Bonjour le Tour! Hello and welcome to live coverage of Stage 18 of the Tour de France - the first of three brutal stages in the Alps which will decide the outcome of the 106th edition of the race.

So, we're back to 11 riders in the lead: Quintana, Bardet, Lutsenko, A Yates, Bernard, Cherel, Woods, Kamna, Benoot, Caruso and Pauwels. Of those, you'd expect Quintana, Bardet or Yates to be favourite for the win - but this is the Tour and their form has been all over the place, so who knows.

Ineos are now piling on the hurt on the front of the pack with Castroviejo and Poels setting things up for Bernal and Thomas. Remember, they still have Van Baarle up the road for once the Spaniard cracks - which will be soon judging by the look on his pained face. The gap is down to 4'55".

If Adam Yates wins today then it will be the first time brothers have won stages on the same Tour since 1919 when Henri and Francis Pelissier both tasted success. That's quite a stat!

Wellens have cracked and others, too, from the break as Yates leads a chase group of Bardet, Quintana and Caruso over to the leaders. They still have 5'35" on the yellow jersey group.

Some early skirmishes sees the breakaway split into two with Woods, Van Avermaet, Pauwels, Lutsenko, Kämna, Chérel and Benoot riding clear of the others.

Right, we're onto the Cat.HC Col du Galibier (23km at 5.1%). Technically, we're not actually onto it until we turn off the road just ahead of the summit of the Col du Lautaret after 14km, but the Tour organisers have simplified things by calling this the Galibier.

There's an early attack from Wellens in this leading group. He clearly thinks he needs a lead before the Galibier if he wants a chance of protecting his polka dot jersey lead. He's on 74pts at the moment with Bardet up to 56pts and 40pts available over the top of the final climb today.

Back with the main group and Ineos have come to the front through Jonathan Castroviejo, who is setting tempo for Bernal and Thomas. They also have Wout Poels in this group - and Van Baarle up in the break. The gap is down to 5'15" again.

Simon Geschke, who was in the second chase group, is now on the attack for CCC ahead of the climb. They're on the false flat up to the foot of the Col du Lautaret.

We're passing through Briancon, the highest town in France, with the 16 leaders - for the two groups have now come together - holding a gap of six minutes. Behind, Guillaume Martin took advantage of the lull to attack the yellow jersey group without any reaction.

The speed has really been knocked off in the yellow jersey group - there's a lot of looking at each other and miscellaneous stretching and general faffing as they approach the bottom of the descent ahead of the lead up to the Col du Lautaret. The gap is up to over six minutes and it doesn't look like any of the main pack - which is back up to around 35 riders now - is motivated by the stage win today.

Our nine leaders are Quintana, Bardet, Lutsenko, A Yates, Bernard, Woods, Kamna, Caruso and Pauwels. They're half way down the descent of the Izoard with a 50 second lead over a group of seven that includes Van Avermaet, Cherel, Van Baarle, Benoot, Amador, Wellens and Rossetto. The greatly reduced yellow jersey group of 20 riders is riding at 5'25" while the Peter Sagan gruppetto is 13'45" down.

That said, Wellens is only 55 seconds down when he crests the summit. Meanwhile, Soler leads the main pack over the top with a deficit of 5'15". Alaphilippe was on the back but still there. Could he hold on to the yellow again today?

Julien Bernard will hold on to take the prize over the summit but behind Bardet is leading the chase with zip! So much zip, in fact, that he and Caruso power past Bernard with the summit gaping. And it's Damiano Caruso who takes the maximum 40pts over the top as Bardet settles for 30pts and second place. But the Frenchman could well be a threat to Tim Wellens' polka dot jersey today as the Belgian has faded on this climb...

Bernard is onto the small downhill section which drops down through the Casse Deserte. He'll be approaching the memorial to Coppi and Bobet soon.

Van Avermaet is caught by the chasers with 3km to go. Just Bernard out ahead with a 10-second lead over this nine-man chase group of Quintana, Bardet, GVA, Lutsenko, Yates, Woods, Kamna, Benoot, Caruso and Pauwels.

Ineos have Thomas, Bernal and Poels in the main pack but they're not riding together. Jumbo-Visma are supporting Kruijswijk with a couple of riders - De Plus and Bennett - while Landa also has Valverde as well as Soler. Buchmann has a couple of Bora riders with him, including Konrad. Alaphilippe is still there with Enric Mas, who was struggling earlier but appears to be OK now. Pinot, however, is the isolated one following Gaudu's distancing. He does have Reichennach, though. French champion Barguil is here, as is Uran. Fabio Aru is off the back but trying to return.

The Yates group has been joined by Lutsenko and Caruso and a few others. Meanwhile, Bernard has dropped Van Avermaet. He's 48 seconds clear of the chasers.