Good morning and welcome to our live coverage from stage 2 of the 2021 Tour de France. Not sure where to really start after what we saw yesterday but let's begin by sharing some video highlights from a breathtaking day at the Tour de France.
Obviously, we'll get to Alaphilippe and the yellow jersey but the day was overshadowed by the two major crashes - one with 45km to go, and the second with around 6km to go. Here's a full list of the walking wounded, and those riders who have unfortunately been forced home through injury.
The breaking news from this morning is that Marc Hirschi and Chris Froome will both start the race. Both riders came down yesterday in the crashes and were doubts for this morning. Here's the latest on Froome. To be honest I thought he was a DNF for sure when he was struggling to stand. He apparently landed on other riders, and bikes, rather than the tarmac.
The full extent in terms of the GC picture after the two crashes is neatly summed up here. It's not looking good for Movistar, or Ineos, or ISN.
Spare a thought for Marc Soler. He was forced out of the Giro after a crash when well-placed on GC and he's out of the Tour now too. I've heard he fractured an elbow but have also heard that he broke both arms in the fall. He finished the stage! But he's obviously out of the race. Movistar also saw Miguel Angel Lopez lose a chunk of time too.
We'll roll out from the start in just over an hour from now but riders are signing on at present. We should start to hear more from other teams in terms of their injury lists. Here's a medical update I was sent last night from the UAE Team.