Hello and welcome to the washout that is the World Championships men's road race in Yorkshire!

On top of the current rainbow jersey Alejandro Valverde, we have three former World Champions in the peloton today: Philippe Gilbert (2012), Rui Costa (2013) and Peter Sagan (2015, 2016, 2017).

Esteban Chaves is currently off the back of the peloton. The Colombian is clearly not enjoying himself out there in the rain but he's bound to have a smile on his face later. Chaves is in his trade team jacket as he drops back to the Colombian team car. The break's advantage is down to 3'55".

We're hearing that Ivan Garcia Cortina has abandoned for Spain. He apparently has stomach issues which, on top of the rain, must be fairly bleak. That's a blow for the current world champion Alejandro Valverde because he's a huge talent and was an outsider in his own right.

It's Rohan Dennis, the Australian time trial world champion, who is pacing on the front of the peloton, working hard for his teammate Michael Matthews, who is one of the favourites today.

Some withdrawals to report: Patrick Bevin (NZl), Vasil Kiryienka (Bel), Lukasz Owsian (Pol), Alexander Evtushenko (Rus), Natnael Berhane, Daniel Teklehaimanot (Eri) and Drikus Coetzee (Nam) have all called it a day.

That's it with the recap. Now let's get to the live action. And Andrey Lutsenko is currently riding off the back with some Kazakh teammates after he needed to swap bikes following a mechanical. He's a good tip for the win today - and loves riding in these conditions. The break, meanwhile, is up to 4'30" ahead.

Back with the peloton, it was France, Australia and the Netherlands doing the lion's share of the pacing after the climb.

This was the crazy scene as the break crested the top of the Cray climb - look at that standing water!

With 200km remaining the gap was pushing three minutes for the 11 leaders as they tackled these narrow, rolling roads in Yorkshire. With all the riders in rain capes, it has been hard to identify who's who.

Philippe Gilbert, the 2012 winner, had numerous early mechanical problems. Then, with around 235km remaining, the break formed.

197 riders rolled out of the start today - and it was Ireland's Dan Martin who put in the first significant attack shortly after the gun. That man Roglic, the Vuelta winner, joined Martin off the front but it came back together.

A photo from earlier in the stage...

Right, let's go to this race live now with 170km remaining. And there's a stellar break of 11 riders out ahead - and it includes three Grand Tour winners! The riders are: Nairo Quintana (Colombia), Richard Carapaz (Ecuador), Primoz Roglic (Slovenia), Jan Polanc (Slovenia), Magnus Cort (Denmark), Petr Vakoc (Czech Republic), Silvan Dillier (Switzerland), Maciej Bodnar (Poland), Jonas Koch (Germany), Hugo Houle (Canada) and Alex Howes (USA).

And the new route as seen on the map...

This is why Buttertubs was taken off the menu...

But heavy rain in God's Own County means the second and third climbs of the day had to be pulled from the race, with an additional two laps of the Harrogate city centre circuit thrown in. Either way, it means this race is now 261km long and not the planned 285km.

So, here's the route that the riders were expected to do today...