Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 16 of the Tour de France - a 165km rolling ride from Le Puy-en-Velay to Romans-sur-Isere.

Dimension Data are helping out on the front of this pack with Team Sunweb with Steve Cummings - who tried his luck earlier getting in the break - putting in a decent shift. They're motivated for their man Edvald Boasson Hagen, who would be a good bet in the sprint in the absence of Marcel Kittel.

The gap is growing to 45 seconds now for the peloton over the Kittel gruppetto, so it's not looking good for the green jersey. Quick-Step Floors are in a bit of a quandry: they've committed men to help the German which has left Dan Martin exposed - he only has Jack Bauer alongside him in the main pack, so Quick-Step won't be their usual echelon-inducing selves if the race blows apart in the crosswinds later on. While we're talking of the Belgian team, here's their explanation for Philippe Gilbert's DNS today...

The Sunweb-fuelled chase group have been caught by the peloton and it's the black-and-white army of Michael Matthews who continue to set a fast tempo in the pack in a bid to pile the pressure on Marcel Kittel, the green jersey, who is in a second pack a further 20 seconds back. The four leaders have 50 seconds to play with now, so it's looking good for De Gendt, Degand, Chavanel and Edet. In fact, there's a fifth rider there now - South African Daryl Impey of Orica-Scott.

The race is up on a plateau now as things start to settle. The four leaders have 35 seconds over the large Matthews chasing group and 50 seconds on the peloton, with the Kittel gruppetto at 1:10.

The irrepressible De Gendt leads the four escapees over the summit with a small gap over those chasers and the peloton. The Belgian pockets 2pts in the KOM competition, which puts him up to 38 points - level with Primoz Roglic of LottoNL-Jumbo - and a distant second to polka dot jersey Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) who has 116pts and looks a shoo-in to win the mountains classification come Paris.

The race is all over the road, but I'll try and simplify it a little. Chavanel, De Gendt, Degand and Nicolas Edet are in the lead with a 10-second gap over a chasing group that includes Michael Matthews and his Sunweb team-mates Laurens ten Dam and Simon Geschke, with the Sky-led peloton a further 10 seconds back and ahead of a second peloton / gruppetto.

With Marcel Kittel, the green jersey, beginning to be distanced by the pack, his points classification rival - Michael Matthews - attacks from the pack, knowing that more intermediate sprint points, plus a high finish, would put him very much back in the frame. Kittel currently leads the green jersey standings with 373 points to Matthews' 294. But should the Australian take the maximum 70 points today, that would reduce the gap to just seven points...

Ah, that explains things: Dan Martin of Quick-Step Floors managed to get himself into the break, which is why Sky upped the tempo. The Irishman is only 1:12 down on Froome on GC and could have been a threat had the pack exploded in crosswinds and he was further up the road.

Chavanel and De Gendt won't give up the ghost here - and despite Team Sky's high tempo on the front, they're resisting, along with handful of others. With reports of crosswinds later in the stage, Sky want to be able to control things and don't want a large group out ahead - even if it seems a bit greedy of them given none of the riders ahead pose any significant GC threat to Froome.

Many riders have been spat out of the peloton - including a host of Wanty riders clearly suffering from their breakaway exploits in the opening week of the race...

We're onto the Cat.3 Cote de Boussoulet (4.5km at 6.3%) and Team Sky aren't happy with the situation and are leading the chase on this large break.

Bora-Hansgrohe lead the chase as numerous riders come out of the peloton and manage to bridge over to the break ahead of the first climb of the day. We're talking around 20 riders now with around the same amount of advantage in seconds...

It's all change after that break is reeled in and another three riders try their luck: Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Thomas Degand (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie). They're soon joined by Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC).

German national champion Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe) has bridged over to the two leaders, while Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) has sparked movement off the front of the peloton. The Sky team-mates of Chris Froome have come to the front to try and regulate things - they will want a break to go out and stick so that there's less tension and stress in the pack.

Maurits Lammertink (Katusha) and Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie) have attacked from that tentative break - which has pretty much been reeled in - to open up a small gap.

Around 15 riders ping off the front soon after the start. It's another hot day in the Massif Central with the sun out, the temperature in the mid-20s but some potential crosswinds anticipated for later on in the stage.

Christian Prudhomme, the race director, waves his flag and this intriguing transitional stage is under way. 174 riders in the peloton today following the withdrawal of Belgian Philippe Gilbert of QuickStep Floors.

Before yesterday's rest day, Bauke Mollema produced a superb solo ride to claim a maiden win at the Tour de France on Stage 15, while Chris Froome had a real battle on his hand to retain the yellow jersey.