Lars Boom is home and hosed: Lars Boom passes under the flamme rouge signifying one kilometre to go.

OK, that's all from me: Thanks for your time and your emails on what was an exciting day's racing that was fairly gruelling to cover from the comparative comfort of an office travel deals to italy chair and must have been completely hellish to ride. Tomorrow the peloton, minus defending champion Chris Froome, will travel 194 kilometres from Arras to Reims. I hope you can join me for what will hopefully be a more sedate day's bike-riding.
Lars Boom is home and hosed: Lars Boom passes under the flamme rouge signifying one kilometre travel deals to italy to go. This is going to go down as one of the great Tour de Franc e stage wins - the Dutchman and former cyclo-cross champion has ridden brilliantly this afternoon and, caked in dirt, he punches the air as he crosses the finish line.
Lars Boom makes his move: The Belkin rider looks set fair to win his first ever stage of the Tour de France , having given Vincenzo Nibali and Jakub Fugslang the slip on the final sector of cobbles. He has less than four kilometres to go and is five seconds clear.
Six kilometres go: Lieuwe Westra gives up the ghost, leaving maillot jaune Vincenzo Nibali, his team-mate Jakob Fugslang and Belkin rider Lars Boom to take on the final set of cobbles. Richie Porte and Fabian Cancellara are 14 seconds behind them. The gap to Andrew Talansky's group is 2min 02sec, while Alberto Contador is a further 18 seconds back.
11 kilometres to go: This is an astonishing performance by Astana, who have three riders at the head of the race after successfully travel deals to italy tackling the penultimate travel deals to italy sector of cobbles. Race leader Vincenzo Nibali and his team-mates Lieuwe Westra and Jakob Fugslang are dictating the tempo, with Lars Boom hitching a ride on their wagon. Behind them, Alberto Contador is in a group over two minutes behind.
Two sectors of cobbles left: The lead group emerge travel deals to italy from the third from last set of cobbles intact, with Sagan having failed to give Nibali travel deals to italy the slip. The penultimate section of cobbles is two-and-a-half-miles long, which is where Fabian Cancellara could make his move.
20km: Peter Sagan leads the field on to the third last set of cobbles. If he can put two seconds between himself and Vincenzo Nibali at the finish line, he'll be in yellow tonight. The Contador group is 1min 43sec behind Nibali. The Talansky group is 1min 20sec behind Nibali.
23 kilometres to go: Vincenzo travel deals to italy Nibali has been a revelation on these cobbles and looks to be having a great time as he negotiates the latest set. Peter Sagan is riding well too and seems to have decided he quite fancies the stage win.
The Nibali/Yellow jersey group in full: Alexander Porsev (Katusha), Vincenzo Nibali, Jakob Fuglsang and Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Michal Kwiatkowski, travel deals to italy Renshaw, Trentin (OPQS), Fabian Cancellara, Gregory Rast (Trek), Cyril Lemoine travel deals to italy (Cofidis) and Jens Keukeleire (Orica) travel deals to italy compose the yellow jersey group. They're about to collar the breakaway, which now comprises Tony Martin (OPQS), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Simon Clarke and Matt Hayman (Orica). There are less than 30 kilometres remaining, but the field still has four sectors of pav to negotiate.
The peloton exits the cobbles: They've four sets left to negotiate. The breakaway has been reduced to six riders: Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R), Lieuwe Westra travel deals to italy (Astana), Tony Martin (OPQS), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Simon Clarke and Matt Hayman (Orica). Behind them, Belkin riders and cobbles specialists Lars Boom and Sep Vanmarcke have jumped off the front of the yellow jersey group and set off in pursuit of the breakaway.
The peloton hits the cobbles: Garmin Sharp rider Andrew Talansky goes down, riding into a spectator as the peloton takes a tight left moments after hitting the pav . He was forced to swerve to avoid Lotto Belisol rider and GC contender Jurgen van den Broeck, who went over his handlebars into a ditch.
Five cobbles sections and 45 kilometres to go: Chris Froome is out of the race and Alberto Contador is in trouble. He's 30 seconds behind the group in which Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan are riding. Nibali and Sagan's travel deals to italy group is 43 seconds behind the breakawa, which has just hit the next sector of cobbles with Tony Martin on the front.
48 kilometres to go: The riders are negotiating the second section of cobbles and it looks quite brutal. The road is narrow, soaking wet, covered in mud, greasy travel deals to italy as a box of fried chicken and cobbled to within an inch of it's life. The riders go through almost in single file, doing their utmost to stay up. This is more cyclo-cross than ordinary bike-racing, but hats off to Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador, who are both showing excellent handling skills at the front of the bunch. Nibali even looks quite clean in his smart yellow jersey.
An email from Fiona: There is more than one team in the TDF or do you work for Rupert Murdoch? she moans. Quite apart from the fact that Fiona doesn't appear to consider the news that the defending champion has abandoned the biggest cycle race in the world to be important, I love the fact that she thinks I might be working for the Guardian-loathing media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
That breakaway group in full: Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R), Rein Taaram e (Cofidis), Lieuwe Westra (Astana), Tony Martin (OPQS), Tony Gallopin (Lotto), Simon Clarke travel deals to italy and Matt Hayman (Orica). They lead Vincent Nibali's yellow jersey group by 1min 30sec.
54 kilometres to go: The peloton negotiate the intermediate sprint, but it's barely contested. The peloton is regrouping having been fractured on the first set of cobbles. The gap between travel deals to italy them and the breakaway is 1min 30sec.
At the exit of the Carrefour de l'Arbre: Stopping travel deals to italy the watch at the end of the first set of cobbles negotiated by the riders, it transpires the breakaway group has two minutes 2min 14sec on the peloton, which has split in two. Tejay van Garderen and Alejandre Valverde were in a group 40 seconds behind the main GC contenders, but are about to chase them down.
Everybody seems to have got over the first section of pav e in one piece, but the big news of the day is that defending champion Chris Froome has abandoned, having crashed twice this afternoon in the wake of yesterday's spill. He's currently travelling to Porte du Hainaut in the back of Sky's second team car. Still, on the plus side, at least they have genuine race contender
Cobble alert: The peloton negotiates the first set of cobbles and all the remaining GC contenders appear to get over it in one piece as they approach the day's intermediate sprint. Contador, Nibali and Sagan are all towards the head of the field, while behind them in the Sky team car, Chris Froome is assessing the damage to his battered body after three nasty falls in the space of 24 hours.
CHRIS FROOME ABANDONS! Before he even gets to the first set of cobbles, the defending champion is forced to withdraw from the Tour. He's taken some beating over the past 24 hours and his latest crash was clearly one too far. He thought long and hard before officially withdrawing, weighing up his options, but his goose is well and truly cooked.
They're dropping like flies: As the teams jockey for position on the approach travel deals to italy to the first set of cobbles, travel deals to italy Chris Froome is very, very lucky to avoid another travel deals to italy fall. Going around travel deals to italy a roundabout, Fabian Cancellara and Tejay van Garderen are notable travel deals to italy names among several riders to crash. They remount and set off in chase of the peloton.
In response to Robin White (2.01pm), travel deals to italy he says. Why shouldn’t a pav expert get say a 10 minute lead on the pav , in the way a climber travel deals to italy might look to get 10 minutes travel deals to italy on the peleton travel deals to italy in the mountains? he asks, not unreasonably. It is the Tour de France (Yorkshire not withstanding) and cobbles are as valid a bit of France as the high Cols. GC is just that – general classification – the winner should be an all-rounder, so to say it penalises the GC contenders makes it sound as though it isn’t a valid stage. Am sure the race handbook/rules does not say that everyone has to let Froome and Contador slug it out in Alps/Pyrenees, so if Cancellara can grab a few minutes now it makes for a better race.
Interestingly, Fabian travel deals to italy Cancellara said in his pre-stage travel deals to italy interview that today is all about self-preservation for him. I'll believe that when I see it. For anyone who's interested, the bookies have Cancellara (9-2) as favourite to win today's stage. Others in the betting: Peter Sagan (6-1), John Degenkolb (10-1), Sep Vanmarcke (13-1), Niki Terpstra (19-1). If I was having a punt, which I'm not, I'd chance 5 each-way travel deals to italy on Terpstra.
Having set off from Belgium, our breakaway group of seven riders travel deals to italy is Gallopin (LTB), Clarke (OGE), Dumoulin (ALM), Martin (OPQ), Westra (AST), Hayman (OGE) and Taaramae (COF). travel deals to italy They're 2min 56sec clear of the bunch with 91 kilomtres to go, as they travel through Roubaix.
BMC rider Marcus Burghardt has dropped out of the breakaway and re-joined the bunch after being instructed to do so by his boss, Directeur Sportif DS Yvon Ledanois, in order to help keep his team leader Tejay Van Garderen out of trouble.
At what point do the organisers worry about how many people might drop out of the race with injuries today? he asks. There are people who have no experience or specialism for this kind of racing being forced to take risks and race seriously on cobblestones in torrential rain.
On the one hand it will cause carnage in the general classification and a specialist like Cancellara could draw out massive time gains on the established GC contenders. But at the same time, you could see Froome and Contador wiped out with injuries meaning that the two main protagonists won't even make it to the mountains.
There is a reason why Paris-Roubaix is a one day classic and why it's dominated by Belgians and few of the main riders travel deals to italy want to take part in it. I feel for Chris Froome. Falling yesterday travel deals to italy and today before the cobblestones start... his head will be full of fear at what lays ahead. Surely going to be a horrendous day for him.
Having taken the skin off his left hip and hurt his left wrist (note th