Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 19 of the Tour de France - a rolling 222.5km stage from Embrun to Salon-de-Provence, the longest of the 104th edition of the race.

The gap is up to 25 seconds now and it looks like those caught out of this split will miss out on fighting for the stage today.

The German Nikias Arndt is a very strong sprinter and he could pull off a real coup here to deliver Sunweb their fifth win of a quite superb Tour.

The gap is about 15 seconds now for these nine leaders, with the 11 chasers working hard to rejoin them ahead of the finish. The danger men in this lead group are clearly Boasson Hagen, Albasini, Keukeleire, Bennati and Arndt.

The nine leaders are: Bakelants, Chavanel, De Gendt, Keukeleire, Boasson Hagen, Gesbert, Arndt, Albasini and Bennati. So most of the fast men are here - except Ben Swift, who is in the second group.

There are actually three groups now, with the second two almost coming back together. Correction: De Gendt is - of course - driving the first group. It was his team-mate Gallopin off the back.

The break has split again - with nine riders on the right side of the split. Thomas De Gendt is currently sitting right on the back of the second group, so he's either playing a dangerous game or simply paying for his efforts of these past few weeks.

Keukeleire is really giving it some welly on a slight uphill segment - and that's blown the break apart into numerous groups... it will come back together, but that would have put some of these escapees very much into the red.

Lilian Calmejane has a dig off the front of the break but it comes to nothing for the stage 9 winner, who has nothing to lose today.

The pace is much higher as the break tries to shake off some of the deadwood. It's hard to see how this will pan out - you expect some of the less zippier riders to try their luck early rather than wait for the streets of Salons-de-Provence.

Quite a technical finish today - it's probably lucky that we're not going to have a big bunch sprint with those tight bends to negotiate...

One rider who has been very quiet in this break is Rudy Molard of FDJ. He's from Embrun, where today's start was, and has friends and family at the finish at Salon-de-Provence. What a story that would be... After all, FDJ are down to just three riders (against 20 staff!) in this year's race following that time-cut gaffe involving their stage 4 winner Arnaud Demare, plus the withdrawal of Thibaut Pinot earlier in the week. A Molard win would put a smile back on the face of manager Marc Madiot...

Orica-Scott duo Michael Albasini and Jens Keukeleire are on the front of this break as it comes back together at the bottom of the climb. The gap is up to 9:50,

That Mollema attack comes to nothing and now it's Gianluca Brambilla who sets the tempo on the descent. The break now has more than nine minutes to play with so it's unquestionably going to be one of these riders who wins today. There may only be three Belgians to the nine Frenchmen in the break, but if I had to put my money on either nation, it would be the former. That said, the nation to back should this come to a sprint is Norway - and they only have one rider: Edvald Boasson Hagen. Twice third, twice second... surely he's going to win a stage today?

There's an attack on the start of the descent by Bauke Mollema, the Dutchman who won stage 15 in Le Puy-en-Velay for Trek-Segafredo.

Romain Sicard crests the summit of the final climb of the 2017 Tour de France in pole position to pick up the redundant 2pts ahead of compatriot Elie Gesbert and the Croatian Robert Kiserlovski. The chasers are led over by De Gendt - who else - a few seconds further back.

Chapeau Gallopin! He not only rides back on, he rides past and attacks the break. He now leads the chase on these three leaders, who have about 10 seconds to play with.

Tony Gallopin is suffering. The Frenchman is dropped form the break but manages to fight back - he's clearly paying for his effort yesterday, when he arrived at the foot of the Col d'Izoard near the front of the break.

Sicard and Gesbert attack and open up a gap, with Kiserlovski in pursuit. The Croatian will join the two Frenchmen - and it's Bakelants who leads the chase from the break.

Another gig from Sicard, with Brambilla, Albasini and De Gendt on his wheel. Still 3km to go until the summit of this last classified climb of the 2017 Tour.

Romain Sicard makes the first move from the break, the Frenchman upping the tempo and stretching out the group accordingly. Albasini and De Gendt come through - but the pace is not high and no one has yet been distanced.

The break is about to hit the Cat.3 Col de Pointu (5.8km at 4.1%) which ramps up to 10% in parts so it certainly lives up to its name. Expect some attacks - some riders could use this as a launch pad for a tilt at the stage.