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Hi Brian.

Good morning, Logan.

The Tour starts today under a cloud, after RadioShack-Nissan pulled Fränk Schleck late Tuesday after the UCI informed him that he'd returned an Adverse Analytical Finding for the banned diuretic, Xipamide. We've also lost Vladamir Gusev today in a crash on the descent from the Aubisque.

We won't spend much time talking about Schleck in our live coverage — we have a bike race to enjoy, after all. I will say that Schleck has said he will request the analysis of his B Sample and if it is positive, he will file a poisoning complaint.

Martin has dropped everyone but Kessiakoff and Kruiswijk.

Voeckler is dragging Hincapie and Feillu up to the leaders, with Sørensen another 30 feet back.

The front of the break is swelling again. We'll have an update on who's made it back to the group when we have it. It seems as though that test acceleration from Martin was a bit too much. He won't want to go over the Tourmalet with just two men and 77km to go.

Here's an update on the boys at the front of the race:

MARTINEZ Egoi 35EUS+00:18:04
SORENSEN Chris... 178STB+00:20:12
VOECKLER Thomas 21EUC+00:44:28
TEN DAM Laurens 157RAB+00:45:35
VINOKOUROV Alexa... 189AST+00:57:28
CARUSO Gianpaolo 132KAT+01:00:39
IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI 34EUS+01:04:31
HINCAPIE George 5BMC+01:04:55
PAULINHO Sergio... 177STB+01:14:26
VOIGT Jens 18RNT+01:14:27
KESSIAKOFF Fredrik 187AST+01:14:49
MARTIN Daniel 65GRS+01:20:39
KARPETS Vladimir 166MOV+01:22:23
KIRYIENKA Vasili 167MOV+01:33:10
STORTONI Simone 48LAM+01:45:39
FEILLU Brice 94SAU+02:10:46

Quinziato is back at the BMC car. He's not only a keen music fan; Manuel is also chasing a law degree, though he told me last year he had no idea what he'd do with it. He just wanted to learn.

Kessiakoff is riding back onto Voeckler's wheel as they approach the summit.

Scarponi is pedaling squares back into the cars behind the peloton.

Christophe Kern attacked from the peloton a few minutes ago. He's now riding through the back of the break, past Dumoulin.

Kessiakoff is back with Ten Dam, Sørensen and Hincapie, about 20s behind the leaders. The Astana man is looking to limit his KOM losses. Voeckler took top points at the Aubisque, ahead of Kessiakoff, to make our top four on KOM look like this, unofficially:

1. Fredrik Carl Wilhelm KESSIAKOFF, Astana: 89 points
2. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar: 55 points
3. Chris Anker SÖRENSEN, Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank: 53 points
4. Thomas VOECKLER, Europcar: 62 points

Boasson Hagen is on the front of the peloton with Wiggins 3rd wheel.

The leaders, Voeckler and Feillu, are a little over 3km from the summit.

I expect France's road team was built around Chavanel, Had the road race course included a handful of Cat. 1 climbs, I think the team would have been very different.

I'm surprised to see Sylvester Szmyd, Michele Scarponi and Jean-Christophe Peraud off the back of the bunch. The Frenchman may be shutting it down to recoup for London after his near stage win last Friday.