Bonjour le Tour! Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 1 of the 2017 Tour de France - kicking off with a 14km time trial in Dusseldorf in Germany.

Michal Kwiatkowski says it all...

Confirmation of the victory - and yellow jersey - for Geraint Thomas of Team Sky. He wins today's ITT in a time of 16:04 - five seconds quicker than Stefan Kung (BMC) and seven seconds better than his team-mate Vasil Kiryienka.

Chris Froome sets a time of 16:16 which sets him up nicely for the rest of the race: he hasn't won this stage - that prize goes to Geraint Thomas, his team-mate - but he's well up on all his rivals today.

Not a bad effort from Pierre Latour, who comes home at 16:29. Excellent from the French national TT champion. Just one man out there now... Froome.

We haven't seen anything of Alberto Contador - but here he is on the home straight, and it's practically the same time as Aru: 16:57. So the Spaniard will be well down on Thomas on GC tonight... and then Quintana comes, and he's five seconds quicker than his rival, Contador.

Here's Fabio Aru and he's close to the 17-minute mark so he will concede the best part of a minute today. And he's almost caught by Stefan Kung of BMC, who comes home in 16:09 - just five seconds slower than Thomas. There's a sigh of relief from the Welshman in the finish zone. He's looking good for the yellow jersey.

Froome was 9 seconds down at the first check. A solid start for the defending champion.

Quintana is 26 seconds down on Martin at the first check so it's a question of damage limitation for the Colombian.

Good ride from Stefan Kung who is just one second down on Martin's target time at the first intermediate check. It's not yet in the bag for Thomas.

So, it's still Thomas in the hot seat ahead of Kiryienka +7, Martin +8, Trentin +10 and Kwiatkowski +15.

Big effort from Marcel Kittel who posts the seventh best time at the finish at 16 seconds. He'll be favourite now to take the yellow jersey tomorrow - provided he wins the stage and picks up the 10-second bonus.

Martin was one second up at the first check after 8km but appeared to fade over the return leg of this ITT. And it's all smiles for Thomas in the winner's enclosure.

It's not going to be a victory for Tony Martin, who comes home eight seconds down on Thomas it seems...

We're hearing that Primoz Roglic also took a tumble - at least the third LottoNL-Jumbo rider to crash today. They're clearly running their slick tyres on a wet weather day.

Chris Froome is under way! The last rider to leave the start ramp for this sodden ITT. Will he push it or, like Richie Porte, play it safe?

Nairo Quintana rolls down the ramp - just as news comes in that his Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde is out of the Tour following that crash.

Off goes Alberto, wearing shin-high grey compression socks...

Fabio Aru of Astana gets his ITT going. Just Kung, Contador, Quintana, Latour and Froome after him. Cummings, Demare and Meintjes have just all left...

And here's Porte finishing his time trial - and he's a huge 49 seconds down on Thomas. We missed most of his run because of the fall-out from the Valverde incident. Also, Primoz Roglic is apparently on course too. Only 10 riders left to start now...

Richie Porte came through the first check 22 seconds down on Kwiatkowski's target time - so the Australian is throwing no caution to the wind (or rain). Still, best lose time but stay up than push things and crash badly. Just ask Valverde. We still have no news on the Spaniard.