Buenos Aires Men's Doubles -

It’s still early and a lot can happen between now and the final climb, but the breakaway’s gap is up to 4’15” and it’s looking good for their chances. The Wellens group, which almost rejoined the yellow jersey pack, is now 6’30” back so it’s unlikely they will come back together. But unless more teams help out Red Bull and UAE behind, then one of these escapees will win today’s showpiece summit finish.

We’re hearing that Italy’s Edoardo Affini has withdrawn, so Visma-Lease a Bike are down to just six riders, four of which are in the breakaway today.

Meanwhile, here’s that crash earlier involving Edward Planckaert, Marco Haller and a concrete bollard that was lucky well padded.

It’s early days – and the gap could come tumbling down once UAE and Red Bull up the tempo behind – but should this breakaway go the distance, there are some stellar climbers here who would be strong candidates for the win at Alpe d’Huez.

Sepp Kuss stands out above the rest, although Richard Carapaz cannot be overlooked after his win yesterday. Ben O’Connor has a habit of winning big stages on the Tour, Thymen Arensman of Netcompany INEOS is also a very strong climber, while Michael Storer is superb on his day. To be fair to Visma, they also have Matteo Jorgenson and Davide Piganzoli along with Kuss, so they could possibly win with three different riders.

The gap is back to 3’50” for the 42 leaders so it’s looking good right now.

Perhaps Remco Evenepoel senses an opportunity to take a third stage win and move closer to the race summit today? We know that all has not been dandy in the UAE camp and the Belgian has now twice denied Pogacar a stage win. If he did it today, on the Alpe d’Huez stage that he really wants to win, it would be a huge psychological blow to the world champion and four-time Tour winner.

The breakaway continues with a 3’25” gap as they come to within 32km of the intermediate sprint.

Wow – that was a close shave. Ed Planckaert of Alpecin had to slow to avoid a piece of road furniture – a road sign embedded in a concrete bowl of a bollard base. Marco Haller of Tudor then ploughed into Planckaert and then hit the barrier, which was lucky padded for exactly that reason. The two riders check each other out before going on their way.