Tour de France 2023 Stage 14 LIVE: Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard set to fight for yellow on the final climb of the first day in the Alps

Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek) set the pace on behalf of his team-mate, Giuliio Cicconi. Alaphilippe came screaming down the outside with Neilson Powless on his wheel, before Ciccone showed them both what a real effort is. Ciccone-Powless-Alaphilippe for 10-8-6. Powless should be happy with that.

He might have missed out on the main move, but it's not especially organised, and hasn't gotten far enough away that the Canadian's pursuit will be in vain. Shouldn't be too hard for the stage 9 winner to make contact.

Whatever happens in the kilometres to come this has been a truly terrible day for the race, and for no team more than EF Education EasyPost.

Thibaut Pinot is able to go just about fast enough to escape their clutches, but Christophe Laporte is preventing the 25-ish riders from establishing a significant, "sticky" advantage. Still 3.5km of this climb left.

And there's a reasonable sized group, including the mercurial Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorious) with the most significant gap over the peloton so far. This is the first cat 1 climb, which is 7.1km and averages 7.4%.

And another one. Shaw has had such a great Tour debut, so let's hope he's able to resume, but it's not looking good. What a horrible start to the stage.

The dsm-firmenich rider, who is very good when the road goes downhill, is receiving medical attention. It's thought he was looking to bridge across and pushed it too far.

127KM TO GO: ALAPHILIPPE FLYING DOWN THE DESCENT

The rest of the group has been rather swallowed up by some of the better descenders from the bunch, but there's few better (arguably just one) than Julian Alaphilippe.

Wasn't the former who Adam Blythe said on the breakaway that Ineos should send up the road? Martinez was sharp enough to beat Alaphilippe to the two mountains points. Could he be the one to displace Powless from the spotty jersey?

The writing was on the wall when the TV pictures cut to the Colombian pedalling very softly, before he pulls to the side of the road, sits down onto the bumper of a medical car and points to his collarbone. That's a big shame for him, EF Education EasyPost, and for the race.

If the sizes of those two things can be compared. The three are Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Lars Van Den Berg (Groupama-FDJ) and Krists Neilands (Israel PremierTech). Eight seconds or so they have.

Onto the first categorised climb of the day where the race is all strung out as the battle for the break shows no side of abating. Powless is hoping this is where he'll be allowed to leave the others behind, or at least be able to take the two points at the top of the col, which tops out with 133.1km to go.

144KM TO GO: RIDERS RELEASED ONCE AGAIN

Sensibly on an uphill section where it is indeed Turgis who is first out of the blocks, followed by Egan Bernal (Ineos) and Chris Juul Jensen (Jayco Alula). EF Education Easy Post are there in numbers, presumably to give Powless a helping hand of some sort.

A second depart fictif. For how long, we're not sure. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) who had made it a short distance up the road, is again at the front, by the side of the director's car.

That's very disappointing for the South African, who has really found a home for himself at Intermarche-Circus-Wanty.

The race is expected to resume in a couple of minutes.

The Movistar rider is the first casualty to be announced by the race. Fingers crossed for no more, but other riders definitely taking hits included:

Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Bryan Coquard (Cofidis)
Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo Visma)
Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty)
Esteban Chaves (EF Education EasyPost)
Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates)

While they're waiting on the bridge - on the ground, in Tadej Pogacar's case, or sitting on the railings, as Matteo Trentin is - Ineos instruct their riders over the radio to check their gears and make sure everything is working as it should. A close-up of Pogacar's cassette and it looks to my untrained eye to be undamaged.

It looked like a fairly innocuous incident with far reaching consequences. It occurred on a slippery right hand bend and there were so many riders involved, from all or most teams.

It's been deemed so serious, with so much medical resource required, that the race director has taken the unusual decision to bring the race to a temporary halt. Were they not to do that, if there was another crash subsequently, which is not unheard of, there would not be the capacity to look after them.

Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) is among the walking (hopefully not too) wounded, looking around for a bike, but it seems as if at least a rider or two will not have been so lucky.

First to emerge from the bunch is the best beard in it, Simon Geschke of Cofidis. Neilson Powless, who needs to pick up some mountains points today, accelerates into shot as well, but it's looking a little bit cagey. It's as if no-one wants to get into a move that gets dragged back, so are waiting for the right wheel. I.e. Someone else's.

Two kilometres from the official start and we're offered a shot inside the race director's car, which shows Christian Prudhomme on the phone. To whom, we cannot know. Maybe his mum. The charistmatic Frenchman, of whom I have had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times, smiles and proceeds to wind up the tinted window.

A few hundred metres from KM0 his call complete, he emerges from the sunroof, takes a look around at his hoard, gives the final instruction, and sends them on their way with a sweep of the flag. No delays today. We're racing.