Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 9 of the Tour de France - and it's the big one: the queen stage of this year's race (at least, for many) is this seven-climb 181.5km schlep through the Jura mountains from Nantua to Chambery.

The peloton comes over the summit of the Grand Colombier 5:50 down on the break, with the likes of Froome, Bardet, Aru and Porte all on the front ahead of this descent. It's no longer raining - in fact, the sun is out - but there will be patches of wet on the road, so they will have to be careful.

Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) takes the 20pts over the summit ahead of Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) so he will move into the virtual polka dot jersey. Vuillermoz rallies to take third place, while Roglic fades for fourth. So Roglic is on 30pts now with Barguil up to 40pts.

Roglic and Mollema have caught Vuillermoz, so they're closing on the two leaders. Just 40 seconds now.

Meanwhile, Roglic and Mollema ride in pursuit of the two leaders, Barguil and Benoot. They have caught and passed Pantano, and have just Vuillermoz ahead before they reach the leaders. Roglic knows that he can wear the polka dot jersey is things go right for him - although Barguil is the favourite for that, given his position on the road.

Vuillermoz has been dropped by Barguil and Benoot on the front of the race - the Frenchman is prehaps dropping back to act as a relay for team-mate Romain Bardet later on.

Contador apparently went down earlier, too, perhaps in that Majka-Thomas incident. So, the Spaniard is not having the best day. He has some scratches on his elbow. There are riders all over the place on this climb - the gradient is really taking it's toll, and the narrow roads means it's hard for them to weave their way up.

CRASH: Alberto Contador hits the deck on the climb after a touch of wheels, it seems. The Spaniard was perhaps rammed by someone behind - speculation that it was Quintana... The Spaniard is back on his bike. We should add that Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) crashed badly in the same incident that took down Thomas, and while he's back on his bike, he's really struggling.

Pantano in trouble: the Colombian has been distanced by Vuillermoz, Barguil and Benoot. Vuillermoz is the virtual leader now - this morning he was 3:33 down on Froome on GC.

We have four leaders now: Frenchmen Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb) have ridden clear with Colombia's Jarlinson Pantano (Trek Segafredo) and Belgian Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal). They have 2:30 on a group of around 17 riders from that initial early break.

Geraint Thomas has been forced to withdraw from the race following that crash on the treacherous descent of the Col de la Biche. The Welshman has a broken collarbone.

CORRECTION: Despite the news filtering through race radio, Jesus Herrada has not withdrawn from the race following that crash - according to the Movistar twitter feed.

Froome was distanced by Bardet and Aru on that descent following the Thomas incident, but they have come back together now near the foot of the climb. Froome now has four Sky riders with him - the same as Bardet, who has four Ag2R-La Mondiale riders, including Cyril Gautier, who is setting the tempo now. The break - which has fragmenented, with seven or eight riders out ahead - is 6:15 ahead.

The break is onto the Cat.HC Grand Colombier (8.5km at 9.9%). It is the steepest climb in Tour history, peaking at 22% near the middle.

This is chaos! An Ag2R-La Mondiale rider leading the descent in the pack overcooks a bend and has to skid to come to a standstill to avoid a crash. The local boys are really pushing it on this descent. Froome is ok, but he's down to one team-mate following that Thomas crash. He's on Porte's wheel on this descent.

CRASH: Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) is one of numerous riders to hit the deck on this narrow, wet descent. The Welshman is on the road with his jersey all torn and his number almost ripped off from his jersey.

CORRECTION: So, we're hearing that Barguil was third over the top of that last climb, ahead of Pinot, so it's Barguil who has 20pts in the KOM standings, and Pinot with 17.

Spain's Jesus Herrada has withdrawn from the race - so Quintana has now lost two of his key mountain lieutenants in Alejandro Valverde and Herrada. No luck for Movistar in this year's Tour.

Meanwhile, it's the Ag2R-La Mondiale trio of Bakelents, Domont and Vuillermoz who lead the break on this descent; echoing this back in the peloton, Romain Bardet and Pierre Latour pile the pressure on Sky. Great riding from the French team, who are based in Chambery, where the finish is today.

CRASH: Astana duo Alexey Lutsenko and Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev have left the road on this wet descent, as has Movistar's Jesus Herrada.

The peloton comes over the top 6:50 down and so Betancur's virtual hold on the yellow jersey gets even better. There's a sharp rise just a kilometre into this descent before the road drops down properly to the foot of the Grand Colombier. The peloton will have to tackle that soon, ahead of a potentially dangerous wet game of downhill roulette.

LottoNL-Jumbo's Roglic crests the summit of the Col de la Biche to take 20pts and move into the lead of the polka dot KOM standings in one fell swoop. Vuillermoz takes second place and 15pts ahead of Pinot, who settles for 12pts. That puts the FDJ rider onto 20pts - so he's level with Roglic, but behind him by virtue of the Slovenian having won that HC climb.