Afternoon everyone and welcome to live blog for the ninth stage of the Tour de France. We're heading from St Etienne where we finished yesterday to Brioude, birthplace of a certain Monsieur Bardet. If that weren't enough of an incentive for the Frenchman to give it a go, it's also Bastille Day... always an incredibly prestigious stage and much sought-after among the home riders in the peloton.

And finally we're seeing some pace. Daryl Impey takes two irrelevant KOM points over the summit and puts the hammer down, which immediately strings out the breakaway.

The injection of speed from Impey prompts a counter from Jan Tratnik and Simon Clarke, which is currently being chased down by Tiesj Benoot and Oliver Naesen.

🎶🎶 All together now... 🎶🎶

Fun fact! This Col is named after the popular 2000s indie band who performed Made-Up Lovesong #43....

The break is on the Category 3 Côte des Guillaumanches. Will we see someone attack here from long range? Tony Martin is one possible candidate. He stands less than no chance in a sprint finish against the likes of Edvald Boasson Hagen and Jasper Stuyven so must go for it from a long way out.

Rumours that the water in this cannon is not, in fact, Vittel, but the lesser-known vintage 'l'eau de tap'...

Feeding time for the riders. Musettes are taken on and goodies shared out. It seems the peloton has safely navigated that one.

Kasper Asgreen is leading the peloton down a short descent at the moment. The young Dane is a prodigious talent enjoying a fantastic breakthrough year. He's capable of tackling the shorter climbs with the best and also mixing with the sprinters on lumpier finishes. He also took a third place on GC in the Amgen Tour of California earlier this year, as well as taking second at the Tour of Flanders.

You get the sense he might not be doing the Grand Tour pace-making for much longer in his career.

The Côte des Guillaumanches begins at 72 kilometres to go. It's a long climb and reaches just over 1,100m elevation. However, the average gradient is a piddling 4.1% and it seems very unlikely to cause much upset in either the break or the peloton.

Deceuninck are working on the front of the peloton, while the gap is extremely stable at 10'20".

The break is working well together, taking on plenty of fluid from the support cars on this scorching hot French summer day.

An incredible statistic here about everybody's favourite Slovakian.

In France, the fans police the fans...

The race is crossing a plateau and will bounce along at roughly 700m above sea level until we begin the Côte des Guillaumanches.

The gap is still 10 minutes. Rui Costa is only just being caught by the peloton after a very long time on his own in the liminal space twixt bunch and break.

Tiesj Benoot is in the break today for Lotto Soudal. His squadare having a spectacular Tour so far, with Tim Wellens in polka dots and Thomas De Gendt claiming the stage yesterday in spectacular fashion.

Can Tiesj add to Tom 'n' Tim's triumphs to triple the team's Tour total today?

Where do you stand on the running debate. Are you a mankini-wearing numpty or a roadside vigilante?

In terms of the general classification, Nicolas Roche is the best placed rider in the breakaway. He's about half an hour down though, so I doubt Julian Alaphilippe will be too concerned about losing the maillot jaune.

That does prompt the question of who, if anyone, might chase the breakaway to bring this back together for a bunch finish? Sunweb, Bora and Bahrain - three teams in pursuit of the green jersey - all have representation in the escape. As do Jumbo-Visma, who might otherwise have been looking at a stage win through Wout Van Aert.

The gap is over ten minutes now. It's over, I reckon.

With about a quarter of the stage already completed, the gap stands at 9'08" and the odds have swung hugely to favour the breakaway. Rui Costa appears to have abandoned his long and fruitless effort to bridge across.

Well, quite...

I'd characterise this pace as 'sedate' at the moment.

Soler is in the break now, while Rui Costa continues to chase. The poor Portuguese is going to be absolutely tuckered out when he does finally make the junction.

We're seeing the initials PLP daubed all over the roads here. Presumably that's some French supporters showing their love for Pierre-Luc Perichon, rather than the Parliamentary Labour Party...

It's been a determined effort from Soler here. He's closed the gap to 45 seconds to the break. The Spaniard is a fantastic climber and could easily bridge up to them on the Mur, who look to be spinning up pretty easily.

Rui Costa meanwhile is making less progress. One wonders if his heart is really in it.