Hello and welcome to live coverage of stage 10 of the Tour de France - a 178km scenic ride from Perigueux to Bergerac, a second rest day if you will, and a chance for the sprinters to take back some of the limelight from the GC men.

Here's the top ten... Impressive for Rudiger Selig, standing in for sprint duties at Bora-Hansgrohe, but disappointing for the likes of Kristoff, Bouhanni and Greipel, who didn't even figure at all.

Marcel Kittel equals his best haul in the Tour... and there's still at least another three sprints up for grabs...

The powerful German was streets ahead of anyone else there - winning by a bike length over John Degenkolb and Dylan Groenewegen.

Four and easy for Marcel Kittel!

Marco Haller opens up the sprint for Kristoff...

A reduced peloton now as they pass through the 1km-to-go banner. Kittel has Sabatini as his led-out man - but Lotto and Katusha are on the front...

Bahrain Merida edging up for Sonny Colbrelli - but Kittel only has one team-mate and he's quite far back for now...

Here come the LottoNL-Jumbo team-mates of Dylan Groenewegen, who's due a good result. They're crossing a bridge and entering Bergerac now...

Direct Energie are there for Adrien Petit and BMC for Greg van Avermaet. Dimension Data are readying themselves. No sign of FDJ, but then again, they've lost their sprinter and three other riders in that tactical snafu on Sunday.

Still Lotto-Soudal doing the work with a train of seven riders on the right of the road, as Katusha-Alpecin edge up...

All over for the two escapees, who are swept up by the pack. Straight away Offredo and Gesbert are right out the back of the pack. Now the race is being ridden in team formations as everyone bunches up for their respective targets: the sprint, a counter or simply keeping out of trouble.

Offredo still going hell for leather, but Gesbert has looked over his shoulders and is shaking his head: he knows the game is up. The gap is 11 seconds as the peloton shed water bottles galore.

Just 10km to go as the peloton splits for another roundabout ahead of the banner. Lars Bak is not happy about the situation because the constant splitting of the peloton - we've just had three roundabouts in succession - means the peloton is moving at a slower pace than he'd like.

Froome is still very near the front in a bid to stay safe and out of trouble.

Our leading French duo will be able to see the peloton behind them if only they turned - they can probably feel their collective breath on their necks by now... 17 seconds is the gap, and there's no way this one will stay out.

Thomas De Gendt has now come to the front of the pack for Lotto Soudal, to relieve Lars Bak after his almost stage-long shift. The gap is down to 25 seconds ahead of what has been billed as the Battle for German Supremacy in Bergerac: Kittel v Greipel.

The gap has crept back up to 55 seconds for the two leaders after the peloton took its collective foot off the gas, not wanting to reel them in too early. It's worth remembering that Offredo was named the most combative rider in stage 2 after his break with Taylor Phinney, who won the race's first polka dot jersey that day.

Who else could make a splash at the finish? Given the circumstances, never before have the likes of Nacer Bouhanni, Dylan Groenewegen, Ben Swift and – shudder – Sonny Colbrelli had a better chance of winning a stage on the Tour, while Norwegians Alexander Kristoff and Boasson Hagen have realistic chances of ending their respective droughts. But by the same token, Kittel could go on to win at least six stages – and with it, build up the kind of points cushion in the green jersey competition that we usually associate with the absent Sagan.

Andre Greipel lies a distant third in the points classification and the veteran German would face an uphill challenge to keep up his run of winning at least one stage in every Grand Tour he’s ridden since the Vuelta in 2007, except for the fact that, with Sagan, Cavendish and Demare all out, Greipel will only need a Kittel mechanical or off-day to turn the tables; expect to see the Gorilla through the mist again soon.

Team Sunweb’s admirable pursuit of 20 intermediate sprint points for Michael Matthews on Sunday deserved applause but could well have cost the team a stage win, after Warren Barguil and the leading break sat up to wait for their pursuers after the Col de la Biche and Grand Colombier double header. Matthews demonstrated Sagan-like qualities in pocketing points while his fellow sprinters toiled with the broom wagon, but it’s hard to see the Australian over-turning a 52-point deficit - more now, after that intermediate sprint - with still so many stages suited to the pure sprinters remaining. Unless, that is, Sunweb can conspire to eliminate Kittel, too.