Bonjour le Tour! Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 6 of the Tour de France - and the first summit finish of the race. I'm Felix Lowe and I'll be taking you through all the thrills and spills of an undulating day in the Vosges mountains.

It's worth pointing out that Caleb Ewan turns 25 today. It will be the only thing he'll be celebrating at the dinner table - unless one of his Lotto Soudal teammates De Gendt or Wellens wins the stage.

Barguil is back with the peloton. Apparently he crashed near the summit of the Grand Ballon and then needed a bike change.

The break is onto the third climb of the day, the Cat. 2 Col du Hundsruck (5.3km at 6.9%). They still have 7'30" on the pack.

Anthony Turgis of Total-Direct Energie is having a bit of a nightmare on this descent. He's riding with Barguil and another Arkea rider but he's in a bad way and overcooking many of the bends, leaving the road on one occasion. All three are still off the back of the peloton but they should get back on soon.

The rain has stopped but the road is very damp and the clouds are menacing. The gap is still over seven minutes as the riders continue this challenging descent. There were some cobblestones on the earlier hairpin bends but now it's just asphalt and it's very wet in patches.

Mechanical for Warren Barguil, who needs a bike change. The French champion won two stages in the 2017 Tour - plus the polka dot jersey - and many people thought that he could stir from his Tour hibernation today. He may still, but will have to fight back into contention first.

Tomorrow, Stage 7 finishes in Chalon-sur-Saone; 60 years ago, Britain's Brian Robinson soloed to glory there by more than 20 minutes. This is how he did it...

De Gendt attacks! This must be part of Lotto's two-pronged assault on the polka dot jersey, with the Belgian looking to protect his teammate Wellens' lead in the KOM standings. De Gendt takes the 2pts over the summit with Ciccone zipping clear to take the remaining point in second place. The rest of the break comes over about 10 seconds later.

It's Lotto Soudal duo De Gendt and Wellens who continue to drive the pace for the escapees, who have 7'20" on the main pack. Poor Nicolas Edet is now almost 11 minutes in arrears.

There's actually no descent after that climb with Le Markstein almost instantly followed by the Cat.3 Grand Ballon (1.3km at 9%). The break are back together more or less - perhaps just a few who are struggling to regain contact.

We mentioned Bradley Wiggins being in yellow on La Planche des Belles Filles back in 2012 ahead of his overall win two weeks later. Well, the big man spoke about the climb in his latest Eurosport podcast this week.

De Gendt, Berhane and Bernard join the three leaders after the summit and so we have six of the original 14-man break riding off the front - although it will probably come back together on the descent.

The break is blown to smithereens ahead of the summit as Wellens zips clear with Ciccone and Meurisse in seach of the KOM points. And it's the Belgian from Lotto who takes the maximum 10pts ahead of Italy's Ciccone who takes 8pts and Meurisse who settles for 6pts. So, Ciccone, who won the blue climbers' jersey in the Giro, has a mind to double up at the Tour.

Wellens and De Gendt edge to the front with the summit now just one kilometre away. Nils Politt, runner-up in Paris-Roubaix, is currently on the back of this break, understandably (he's a big unit).

QuickStep still have two riders on the front in Kasper Asgreen and Max Richeze. Behind, the entire Team Ineos train are riding in formation. Their two leaders - Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal - are 45 seconds and 40 seconds respectively off the race summit, so either could feasibly go into yellow today if Alaphilippe feels the pinch.

It's worth mentioning that this climb, Le Markstein, was the climb on which Alberto Contador abandoned the 2014 Tour after crashing on the previous descent in the mist and breaking a tibia. The Spaniard rode on - and even crested the summit of this climb - before calling it a day. In his absence, and the absence of Chris Froome, who had already pulled out, Vincenzo Nibali won the Tour.

The 14-man break is still together and has just enjoyed a slight downhill section that provides a little respite on this climb. They still have 7'15" over the peloton, which has dropped Nicolas Edet, the Frenchman, who seems to be suffering from illness.

Today's finish is at La Planche des Belles Filles - a climb which has been used three times before in the Tour, resulting in victories for Chris Froome (2012), Vincenzo Nibali (2014) and Fabio Aru (2017). Interestingly, on each occasion, the rider in yellow at the end of the stage went on to win the Tour: Bradley Wiggins (2012), Nibali (2014) and Chris Froome (2017). Will that sequence continue this year? Well, if it does, then it will be interesting to see whose in the maillot jaune tonight...

It's an interesting composition of riders in this break with any of De Gendt, Wellens, Pauwels, Teuns, Ciccone or Meurisse capable of winning. Ciccone could take the polka dot jersey if things pan out well for him - although Wellens being there makes that complicated. The Italian could be there with teammate Bernard for Richie Porte later in the stage, in the same way that Teuns may hope to link up with Vincenzo Nibali later. Cosnefroy could be a relay for Romain Bardet, too, although none of the other big GC teams are represented.

Right, irrelevent intermediate sprint over, now let's focus on the proper stuff. The riders are onto the first climb of the day, the Cat.1 Le Markstein (10.8km at 5.4%). It's the first Cat.1 climb of this year's Tour and the first of seven climbs on today's menu. The gap, incidentally, is up to seven minutes.

Bantz! Matthews darts clear from the pack for that remaining point - Sagan jumps into his back wheel but doesn't bother coming round the Australian, who takes the point and turns round with a smile.