That’s all for today … Thanks for joining me and for all the emails. It’s enjoyable reading your messages and I appreciate you keeping me company over the 178km of today’s stage. And, what a hectic day that was. I think I need to go recover from it, so that’s all from me today.

In the meantime, here are some more images from the Tour and today’s winner, Richard Carapaz.

Eurosport have spoke to Van Aert. He says: “Of course we also wanted to go for the stage, it was really difficult to create a breakaway today. There was so much interest [in a breakaway].”

Asked if he has his eyes on the stage win tomorrow, Van Aert replies: “Tomorrow is a stage I have on my mind, so we’ll see.” Tune in tomorrow for that.

Pogačar jumps Vingegaard with about 300m to go! He might get a second or two more on the Danish rider with that move.

Evenepoel has attacked and has about 80 metres gap from Vingegaard and Pogačar. Are those two bothered? I can’t tell.

1km to go: The race leaders are on the third category climb, the Côte de SuperDévoluy Good news for Romain Gregoire. He gets the combativity award today.

Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Pogačar are all together.

2km to go: Vingegaard is with Evenepoel now and they’re gaining on Pogačar. There’s only about 30 metres between them now. Carapaz is still going strong out front.

3km to go: Vingegaard is dropped by Pogačar. Evenepoel goes past and Vingegaard shakes his head.

6km to go: That move earlier from Ciccone fizzled out pretty quickly.

10km to go: Carapaz’s gap on Yates has grown as they both descend. There’s about 18sec between them.

12km to go: Mas is 30sec behind Carapaz. The Ecudorian rider is absolutely pushing it up this climb. The crowds here are so energised and I’ve even seen someone dressed as Santa Claus shouting encourgament to Carapaz. It’s July isn’t it?

14km to go: Carapaz has caught Simon Yates. Williams is now 37sec behind them.

15km to go: Carapaz has dropped Williams and is putting down the power again to try to catch Simon Yates.

16km to go: Carapaz and Williams are chasing Simon Yates and closing in on him. There’s about 4kms of the climb to go and Yates has a slim 4sec advantage on the duo behind him.

17km to go: Madouas and Martin have joined the four in the break (Benoot, Jungels, Grégoire and Cort).

Simon Yates has caught the group and surpassed them on the climb. He’s on a mission!

19km to go: Madouas and Martin are closing the gap on the breakaway. They’re just 10sec behind now. The next climb is the 7.5km first category Col du Noyer, with an average gradient of 8.1%.

22km to go: In a bid to clear up who’s where, here’s a race situation update from the Tour de France race centre.

Race situation at the top of Col Bayard:

Leading the race: Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Magnus Cort (Uno-X)
+30sec: Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ)
+1min: 30 cyclists; among others: Van Aert (Visma), Sivakov (UAE), Yates (Jayco), De Plus, Thomas (Ineos), Armirail (Decathlon-Ag2r), Haig, Poels (Bahrain), Hirt (Soudal), Gaudu, Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Carapaz (EF), Vanhoucke (Lotto), Williams (Israel), Mas, Aranburu (Movistar), Vauquelin, García Pierna, Rodríguez (Arkéa), Meintjes, Zimmermann (Intermarché), Bardet, Barguil, Onley (dsm-firmenich), Abrahamsen, Kulset (Uno-X), Cras, Jegat (TotalEnergies) …
+6min 40sec: Peloton

Does that make it easier to follow? I’m not sure, but it might help locate a rider of interest.

24km to go: There’s a 30sec gap between the breakaway and two riders chasing them (Martin and Madouas). The larger counterattack group are 1min behind the brekaway.

Here are the results from the Col Bayard climb:

1. Magnus Cort (Uno-X), 5pts
2. Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ), 3pts
3. Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), 2pts
4. Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), 1pt

26km to go: Here are some pictures from today’s stage via the newswires:

33km to go: As the four-man breakaway plugs steadily away up the climb, riders have been dropping back from the big chasing group. Küng, Juul Jensen, Soler, Tejada, Dujardin, Denz and Thomas are among those that are out of the chasing group now.

The spectators on this climb are having fun, aren’t they?

35km to go: While the riders climb, here’s an email from Pierre in Normandy about the broom wagon (voiture balai):

Hi Amy from wet and cold Normandy where I try to improve my fluency in English by reading your live coverage, and thank you for that. About Sam Bennett abandon:

Having chosen lastminute.com as the sponsor on the voiture balai, which is the most feared vehicle by all TdF riders, demonstrates that either (i) TdF directors have some humour or (ii) they (like me) should try to improve their English.

Have an nice afternoon.

36km to go: There was a 1min 45sec gap between the chasing group (which now numbers 48 riders) and the breakaway at the foot of the Col Bayard. The yellow jersey group is 4min 55sec behind the break.

38km to go: The breakway are coming up to today’s first classified climb. The second category Col Bayard is just under 7km with an avergae gradient of 7.3%.

Here’s an interesting fact for you today, via the official Tour de France website:

Col Bayard was the first Alpine pass to be climbed by Tour de France riders, having been ridden for the first time in 1905.

46km to go: The breakaway has almost 4min on the yellow jersey group. A group of about 40 riders, including Gaudu, Mas and Van Aert have broken away in pursuit of the breakaway and are about 1min 33sec behind.

49km to go: Here are the results of the intermediate sprint in Veynes:

1. Magnus Cort (Uno-X), 20pts
2. Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), 17pts
3. Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), 15pts
4. Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), 13pts
5. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty), 11pts
6. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 10pts
7. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), 9pts
8. Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-dstny), 8pts
9. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies), 7pts
10. Mike Teunissen (Intermarche-Wanty), 6pts
11. Robbe Ghys (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 5pts
12. Laurenz Rex (Intermarche-Wanty), 4pts
13. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X), 3pts
14. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), 2pts
15. Sandy Dujardin (TotalEnergies), 1pt

56km to go: Here’s how the points classification stands after the intermediate sprint results:

1. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty), 387pts
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), 354pts
3. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), 188pts

Elston has asked: “Do you think Bini has enough points to win the green jersey?” Well, Girmay has got a healthy lead in the points classification, so although nothing is guaranteed, it does look highly likely that he’ll be in the green jersey unless something drastic happens. He’s keeping close to Philipsen, so if he keeps doing that, his rival shouldn’t be able to catch him up on points with what’s left in the Tour.

59km to go: So, Cort was the first to cross the intermediate sprint finish line, ahead of his breakaway companions Gregoire, Benoot and Jungels. But in news that will make Ollie in Kyiv happy (see 1.33pm BST), Girmay reacted strongly to Philipsen’s push towards the line. Girmay is looking to be in good form given his crash yesterday.

63km to go: The intermediate sprint is on us. There is up to 20 points to be earned for the points classification. The breakaway have ridden through but the interest is between Jasper Philipsen and Girmay to see how that unfolds.

67km to go: Bill has been sending over very eloquent musings on the Tour stages, and today is no exception. Here is his latest take, via email:

Even though there’s only three categorised climbs on this stage, the profile is attritional. It begins with fifty miles of uphill, a brief slope down then another twenty miles. Then it goes again before hitting the hills with the numbers above them.

For a breakaway to work, they’ll need to spend so much energy getting a stomp on to escape the peloton, which will require teamwork. Then it’ll be a ride of thrilling heroics to drop Van Aert before he wins.

I think the yellow jersey will be on the end of some shenanigans today, to tire him out and soften him up before the next two stages. Have a great afternoon.”

Thanks Bill. Hope you have a great afternoon too!

71km to go: The breakaway’s lead is staying steady for the moment at about 1min. Healy, who doesn’t seem to tire, tried to attack but was shut down. UAE Team Emirates have been cancelling out attacks.

76km to go: The counterattack group have been caught and now the peloton are 1min behind the breakaway. The intermediate sprint will be coming up shortly.

James in Amsterdam has emailed in some thoughts:

Both Gaviria and Bennett, sprinters who abandoned the Tour today, used to ride for Quick Step. As did Fabio Jakobsen, who abandoned last week.

In fact the only sprinter to have ridden for Quick Step not to have abandoned this edition of the race (so far) is Mark Cavendish.

It seems that not only do sprinters win significantly fewer races when they leave Lefevere’s powerhouse squad, they also struggle to finish the Tour.”

79km to go: Christophe Laporte, Laurens De Plus, Javier Romo and Mathieu Burgaudeau are chasing Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Cort (Uno-X).

86km to go: Let’s step away from the attacks and counterattacks for one moment. It’s tiring just watching them go and go again.

Joe has got in touch about stage 17 predictions. He says:

On Peacock, the commentators (Phil Liggett, Bob Roll and Christian Vande Velde) are speculating that a fair few sprinters will abandon today. Interestingly, they point out that in most Tours, the sprinters will stay in for the chance of a stage win in Paris. But that’s not in the cards this year, so there’s some mental calculations going on.”

91km to go: The counterattack of six riders, which included Kwiatkowski, has been caught. Also, the yellow jersey group is numbering about 40 riders at the moment, with the crosswinds and high pace splintering the peloton today.

97km to go: Ollie has emailed in from Kyiv and says:

Greetings from an absolutely sweltering Kyiv, where the Tour is providing a welcome distraction during our regular evening power cuts.

Any word on how Girmay’s looking after yesterday’s crash? Very keen for him to stay in green – hopefully one of many milestones towards a more inclusive era of road racing, and he also looks extremely dapper in it.”

It was such a shame to see Girmay crash at the end of yesterday’s stage. I haven’t seen too much of him in the coverage today but he’s there pedalling away. Currently, he’s in the second peloton group, which is about 40sec behind the GC group.

100km to go: The peloton has broken into three groups. Carapaz, Mas and Yates have been caught and a new counterattack group of six has emerged: Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team) and Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty).

103km to go: There’s a trio of Enric Mas (Movistar), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) chasing the breakaway.

108km to go: The attacking group have lost a bit of time now as riders have been taking turns to push the peloton’s pace. They want to reel in that four-man breakaway.

112km to go: The group of four attackers have increased the gap to about 45sec. Elsewhere, Sam Bennett (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondial) is struggling as he drops back.

117km to go: Magnus Cort has attacked and along with Bob Jungels (Bora-Hansgrohe), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike) they’ve built a lead of about 15sec.

126km to go: The road is starting to climb and, well, so are the riders. There’s been a few moves on the front of the group but nothing is sticking at the moment. Notably, Van Aert is visible.

132km to go: Over on the radio, UAE Team Emirates are telling their riders: “We need to be more present … Visma are jumping.”

Adam Blythe has spoken to the Visma team and they’re saying they’re looking for Van Aert to win the stage today.

134km to go: Here’s what to expect in today’s stage, according to Cycling Weekly’s stage by stage guide published before the start of the Tour:

With the points classification more than likely sewn up, and the intermediate sprint 114km away, the peloton will let the breakaway form from the get-go, and it’s likely to be stacked full of teams who are still looking for their first win. The day’s winner is almost guaranteed to come from the break.

The GC riders, meanwhile, will be looking to the penultimate climb of the Col du Noyer to attack, the final two kilometres having sustained ramps of double-digits gradients.”

139km to go: It’s over for the four-man breakaway. They’ve been caught by the peloton. Ah, well.

143km to go: The quartet have increased their advantage to about 10sec. Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-Dstny) and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) are in the attacking group along with Van Aert.

Healy and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) are trying to join the break.

148km to go: Four riders, including Wout van Aert, have attacked and managed to get a small gap of 6sec on the peloton. There’s a couple of riders trying to bridge across. Ah, look! It’s Healy. He loves a breakaway.

151km to go: Geraint Thomas pushed off the front with a Lotto Dstny rider on his wheel. It didn’t last long though, with a chasing group reeling them back in.

153km to go: After a hectic start, the riders have settled (for now). Apparently it’s about 33C where the riders are.

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) who was trailing behind the peloton has made it back to the bunch.

157km to go: Adam Blythe was right. The riders have come back together. But as the commentators are saying: “Is this the calm before another storm?”

What are your thoughts on what we can expect today? Email me your predictions.

162km to go: The riders at the front of the race are averaging 51km/h. The crosswinds and high pace has caused chaos. Adam Yates and Pavel Sivakov are in the last group, trailing behind.

Another UAE Team Emirates rider, Marc Soler, is in a group of about 30 riders who have dropped behind the main group.

165km to go: Adam Blythe is absolutely loving the start of stage 17. He’s giddy with excitement on the back of a motorbike for Eurosport as he describes the crosswinds from the start of the race. “Damage can be done without climbs,” he points out, describing how the riders will have to be “vigilant all day”.

It’s an explosive start, says Blythe, but he thinks it will all come back together again eventually.

David Gaudu has spoken …