Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 4 of the Tour de France - a 207.5km ride from Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg to Vittel in France, via one Cat.4 climb and, probably, a bunch sprint finale.

Two things are certain: 1. Van Keirsbulck won't stay out ahead of the peloton today, and 2. He will, at least, find consolation in winning the day's combativity prize - and so will wear a red number tag tomorrow. His gap now dips below five minutes.

After some largely flat roads in north-east France, we're going into slightly lumpier terrain ahead of the intermediate sprint and subsequent Cat.4 climb before the run into the finish at Vittel. Who's going to win today? Why not vote in our Twitter poll below...

If you're just joining us, here is a recap: Lone leader Guillaume van Keirsbulck of Wanty-Groupe Gobert has been out since kilometre zero in this 207.5km stage from the home town of Andy and Frank Schleck to Vittel. He had a maximum lead of 13:30 but now holds a smaller advantage of 6:30 over the peloton as the race passes through the feed zone of this long transitional stage - a third stage in as many days in excess of 200km in length.

With the gap coming down to seven minutes for Van Kiersbulck, the FDJ team of French national champion Arnaud Demare send a man onto the front of the pack. So far, this one is keeping to the script as the race passes through the town of Pagny-sur-Moselle.

We had a shake up in the white jersey youth classification yesterday after Switzerland's Stefan Kung (BMC) struggled on the final rise to the finish. Kung is now third in the standings, 13 seconds behind Frenchman Pierre Latour of FDJ. Andrey Lutsenko of Astana is second, at 12 seconds, while Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) is fourth at 15 seconds, five seconds ahead of fifth placed Simon Yates (Orica-Scott). Both Latour and Buchmann finished with the main GC favourites, but Yates and the others were caught out in a split, coming home eight seconds down at Longwy.

The gap is coming down now for our lone leader, who's advantage has dropped below double figures for the first time in 50-odd kilometres. 'Just' 9:45 now for van Kiersbulck.

While we're going through the jerseys, let's take a look at the king of the mountains competition: for a second successive day, we have an American from Cannondale-Drapac in polka dots. Nathan Brown (3pts) took over from Taylor Phinney (2pts) in Cannondale's on-going game of dot potato; that man Sagan separates the two riders after picking up 2pts after yesterday's climb to the finish, while Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) also has 2pts. Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) and Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) have 1pt apiece. With just one Cat.4 climb on the menu today, there should be no change in the standings.

Here's a good stat on yesterday's winner, Peter Sagan, who moved onto 50pts in the green jersey competition with his eighth Tour triumph - 16 behind current points classification leader, Marcel Kittel. Snug between the German and the Slovakian is Frenchman Arnaud Demare, who has 57 points. The Slovakian is going to have his work cut out to win a sixth successive green jersey this July: there are only two uphill ramped finishes that suit his characteristics, and he's already won one of them. With another seven bunch sprints expected, a rider like Kittel could dethrone the king - although Sagan is just so consistent, as this stat shows...

He may have the best part of 13 minutes to play with, but recent history doesn't bode well for Guillaume van Kiersbulck. The rule of thumb suggests that these crazy solo breaks just don't work - hence the nickname, 'suicide break'. Incidentally, the longest solo breakaway in the history of the Tour was Albert Bourlon in 1947: a staggering 253km. So even if van Keirsbulck stays out today, he won't better Bourlon.

Around one-quarter into this long transitional stage and lone leader Guillaume van Kiersbulck of Belgium has 12:45 over the pack as compatriot Thomas de Gendt of Lotto Soudal comes to the front to help with the chase. He'll be hoping to pave the way for team-mate Andre Greipel in Vittel.

According to our man Brian Smith - aka The Coach - today's finish could suit former French national champion Nacer Bouhanni. The Cofidis rider is still in the hunt for his maiden Tour stage win - in fact, he's never finished in the top three - and today's finish could suit the combative Frenchman quite nicely. Watch Brian in the video below to find out why...

Over 12 minutes now for our baroudeur, Van Keirsbulck, who is covering the Pont Laurent Barbier, which crosses the Moselle, is painted blue - like the sky, right now - and is named after its late architect. Van Keirsbulck is the third Wanty rider in as many days to get into a break, after Frederik Backaert yesterday and Yoann Offredo on Sunday.

We caught up with a relaxed and chatty Mark Cavendish ahead of today's stage - and the Dimension Data rider is realistic about his chances of adding to his tally of 30 Tour stage wins. Given his battles with glandular fever this year, it was mighty impressive to see Cav so competitive in Sunday's sprint, in which he finished fourth. Perhaps today is the day the Manx Missile will move within three wins of Eddy Merckx's record tally?

The crowds are out in their droves on what is a lovely, sunny day in the Meurthe-et-Moselle region of northern France. Our lone leader now has more than 10 minutes over the peloton. This fine, warm and clement weather makes a bit of a change from the rain and wind we had in Dusseldort and Belgium for the Grand Depart.

Team Sky control the tempo on the front of the peloton in Froome's absence. The triple champion is riding with the yellow jersey, Geraint Thomas, further back, while Luke Rowe marshals things with Christian Knees and Michal Kwiatkowski. Apologies, but we don't have a new white Team Sky jersey icon, so we'll have to go with the traditional black...

The gap is up to 8:45 for Guillaume van Kiersbulck, who is currently having a snack. The 26-year-old joined Wanty this year from Quick-Step, with whom he spent his entire career since joining as a trainee in 2010. The classics specialist has five career wins to his name - most notably a sodden edition of Le Samyn back in March. The Belgian raced the Vuelta in 2013 but never finished higher than 22nd in a stage - which is currently his best position in this year's Tour.

The peloton is already strung out as Chris Froome rides near the back of the pack after dropping off to talk to his Sky team car. The defending champion is the favourite to win this race, according to Jens Voigt, who is in the Eurosport commentary booth with Rob Hatch. The retired German thinks that the Tour will be decided between Froome and his former team-mate Richie Porte, and he thinks today's sprint will be won by that man Peter Sagan...

The helicopter camera crew are having a field day today as lone leader Van Kiersbulck stretches his lead out to almost six minutes.

The riders have just entered France again after that little detour back into Luxembourg this morning - to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Luxembourg Cycling Federation, apparently.

Besides its eponymous baths, Mondorf (population 4,970) is home to one of Luxembourg’s finest Rococo churches and the country’s only casino. The Tour has twice hosted intermediate sprints at Mondorf-les-Bains: on Stage 2 in 2002 (Sylvain Chavanel taking the spoils) and Stage 10 in 1992 (Johan Museeuw).

Between them, the Schlecks took part in 22 Tours and won five stages, with Andy, the younger brother, retrospectively being crowned the 2010 Tour champion. In the absence of the Schlecks, the race’s local Luxembourger is Ben Gastauer (AG2R-La Mondiale), whose birth town is just a handful of kilometres west of Mondorf-les-Bains.