Hello and welcome to live coverage of Stage 7 of the Tour de France - yet another 200km+ stage which should culminate in yet another bunch sprint finale.

Vermote and Bak - who have spend most of their respective Tours riding on the front of the peloton chasing breakaways for their sprinters - finally acknowledge each other's presence. The gap is down to 2:48 for the four leaders.

With just the one KOM point on offer today, there will be no change in the climbing classification today. Fabio Aru currently wears the polka dot jersey after winning atop La Planche des Belles Filles a few days ago. The Italian is on 10pts with his nearest rivals being Dan Martin on 8pts and Froome on 6pts. Expect a shake up over the weekend in the Jura mountains, mind: there's 17pts up for grabs on Saturday and a whopping 70pts on Sunday.

Here's the official profile of the stage today - with some rolling roads in the middle either side of the intermediate sprint. Just the one Cat.4 climb, though, so don't expect anything other than a bunch gallop at the finish.

Whoever wins the expected bunch sprint today - Kittel? Greipel? Demare? Bouhanni? Kristoff? - will certainly be the toast of town on Friday night as they follow in the tyre-tracks of some (semi) illustrious riders: Nuits-Saint-George (population 5,700) has twice hosted finishes in Paris-Nice with vintage victories from both Freddy Maertens (1977) and Matthew Goss (2011). Who's your money on? Tweet me @Saddleblaze and I'll publish the best suggestions here in the live thread.

The winner of today's stage would be well advised to forego the usual celebratory bubbles and pop a cork or two of the local rouge – made from the smooth Pinot Noir grape. Nuit-Saint-Georges is found in the heart of the Burgundy wine region and just a few clicks south of Dijon, renowned for its mustard. While there are no Grand Cru vineyards within the Nuits-Saint-Georges sub-section, eight bottles of the feted Romanée-Conti red from the neighbouring Côte de Nuits fetched $224,900 at auction at Sotheby’s London in 1996 (it takes the produce of three vines to make one bottle). Cheers!

Today is the fifth stage in seven which has been more than 200km long and which will result in a bunch sprint. I think we understand what Roman Kreuziger is on about...

Here's our three-man break riding through Renoir country. Today is going to be a tricky day for the commentators... It's lucky Carlton Kirby has no end of things he can chew the fat over. The gap is 3:45.

So, yes, that man Demare. He's the green jersey after sprinting consistently - not just fast, but also recklessly if you believe the line taken his critics (a line which, unlike Demare, doesn't veer off course and in the path of others). After his Stage 4 victory and strong showing in the intermediate sprints, Demare has 170pts to Marcel Kittel's 143pts in what is shaping up to be a thrilling two-way battle for green. But the French national champion has been accused of dangerous sprinting - and even by causing the Sagan/Cavendish incident a few days ago, after which he also cut up Nacer Bouhanni. Demare was up to his same antics yesterday, barging Marco Haller and cutting up Edvald Boasson Hagen in the finale. Some believe the racy jury are not showing enough consistency, having kicked off Peter Sagan but done nothing with Demare.

Frenchman Olivier Le Gac of FDJ joins Vermote and Bak on the front. Le Gac has been a bit ill since the start of the race and he's currently the Lanterne Rouge - the last man in the Tour general classification - the best part of one hour down on Froome (57'34" to be precise). He is one of Arnaud Demare's team-mates, the Frenchman who wears the green jersey. More on him later...

A reminder that Chris Froome is in the yellow jersey for a second day after taking over at the top from Geraint Thomas on Wednesday's stage to La Planche des Belles Filles. Froome leads the Welshman by 12 seconds, with the Stage 5 winner Fabio Aru of Astana in third place, a further two seconds back. Dan Martin and Richie Porte complete the top five at 25 and 39 seconds.

The gap quickly grows to three minutes for this break. Meanwhile, the riders in the peloton fall into their familiar roles as Julien Vermote (Quick-Step Floors) and Lars Bak (Lotto Soudal) come to the front. We'll have to get used to this sight for a while. Tucked in just behind, we have Chris Froome's Team Sky train.

Four riders ping off the front from the outset: Dylan van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac), Manuele Mori (UAE Team Emirates), Maxime Bouet (Fortuneo-Oscaro) and Yohann Gene (Direct Energie) open up a gap on the pack.

They're off! Race director Christian Prudhomme does his one job of the day and waves the flag from the sun roof of the red Skoda... and the 193 riders get this next sprinters' stage under way.

Yesterday, Germany’s Marcel Kittel proved too fast for Frenchman Arnaud Demare and compatriot Andre Greipel to notch his second win of the 2017 Tour de France at Troyes, as Britain's Chris Froome retained the yellow jersey. Read the full report below...

Here's what's in store today for the riders in the 213.5km stage from Troyes to Nuits-Saint-Georges, with just the one small categorised climb on the menu.