Tour de France 2013: stage seven - as it happened

And with that, and the sprinters finally making their way through the streets of Albi, I'm off! The sun is shining, there's a weekend to look forward to and, for me, a tent to pitch on a field in Hertfordshire. Thanks for your tweets, emails and all-round good company. Have a most excellent weekend, à bientôt!

Here's the overall top-five as it stands on the end of today:

1. Daryl Impey (RSA) OGE
2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) SKY - at 3"
3. Simon Gerrans (AUS) OGE - at 5"
4. Michael Albasini (SUI) OGE - at 5"
5. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) OPQ - at 6"

Daryl Impey finished 12th today, and keeps his yellow jersey. Edvald Boasson Hagen stays second.

What a performance that was from Cannondale. They had their plan, caught everyone cold, and totally took over the stage. Sagan's victory could hardly have been more deserved, though he still had to work for it.

Still Cannondale first, second and third, but it's anyone's race. Nearly anyone.

…and they're caught! As it stands, there are four Cannondale riders at the front, and then a couple from Sky.

Finally some other teams decide to get involved. There are 3km to go, and the front three lead by perhaps two seconds.

The front three lead by 10 seconds, and surely have no hope of winning this stage. Though in their desperation to catch up Cannondale go into a roundabout too quickly and at least three of them were within a tiny wobble of going over.

Albis in popular culture, No2: the racist dragon. I don't really have a No3.

As the finish line hoves into view, an occasional list of noteworth Albis in popular culture. No1: the blogging rabbit.

The trio are being reeled in here – they're only just over 20 seconds ahead. Mark Cavendish, meanwhile, is having a lovely time, chatting and smiling and 11 minutes behind the leaders.

L'Equipe's list of Sagan's key rivals for the stage win, assuming the peloton catch the breakaway trio: Philippe Gilbert (BMC), John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) voire Kris Boeckmans (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana).

The gap has been steady for about 10km, at 35sec. It's too close for comfort, but would be just enough if maintained to give Bakelants yellow. It would be quite funny if someone else from the peloton pooped Cannondale's party, despite all their work. Perhaps Boasson Hagen? Or a second Albi stage win for Cadel Evans? We'll know soon enough – 15km to go.

Now 22km to go. Bakelants could just do this. About 40 seconds back, Cannondale are still leading the charge. They've played their hand brilliantly today, essentially eviscerating rival sprinters in the period of about five minutes of particularly nasty climbing, and they haven't had much help from anyone else.

Though I have to say, as birthday parties go that one is particularly rubbish.

Less than 30km to go now, and there's a 35sec gap between the peloton and the front three. Some riders may be looking forward to reaching Albi more than others:

The sprinters' group is now six minutes behind the peloton, and though there was a lot of sense in their decision to take things a little bit easy, they should only take that so far.

There's 35km to go, and the lead is around 40 seconds. The peak of the Côte de Teillet has just been passed by the front three, and Bakelants wins the point.

And as I write that, I'm told that the front three are now just 33 seconds ahead.

So the race is down to this: can Bakelants cling on to what is currently a 50-second lead, or will Cannondale reel him in?

Greg Henderson of Lotto-Bellisol has told his team not to wear themselves out, and the chase is off. That pack of frustrated sprinters, including Greipel and Cavendish, will not catch anyone now.

Froomewatch: here's a picture of Britain's race favourite, having a lovely time earlier in the day.

Lotto have taken the lead of the peloton, though they're all mixed up with Cannondale. "Re Mr Costello's email, I think Lance Armstrong led a crusade against the heretics somewhere near here in about 2003," suggests Gary Naylor.

Next up, the category four Côte de Teillet, a short 'n' steep shuttle uphill, though there's a fair amount of downhill to deal with first.

Bakelants was 28th at the end of yesterday's sixth stage, 33 seconds off the lead. Obviously this means that if he and his two pals can keep their current 50-odd-second lead he'll take the yellow jersey tonight.

The front three have completed their climb, which means that Blel Kadri will wear the polka dots tomorrow.

"Following the tour from the vicarious pleasure that is Ulaanbaator," writes Rossa Brugha. "You'll be pleased to hear that the main square here is full of kids on mountain bikes pulling wheelies in front of a massive statue of Chinngis Khan (Ghenghis is not the correct nomenclature, apparently). I shouted 'Allez' at a few of them but no response from the peloton as yet. Will keep you updated." Wow. Exciting times in Ulaanbaator.

"Cav's DS has just been interviewed on French TV and said 'it's not over yet' - bit optimistic," writes Pearson Brown. I guess he's paid to be wildly optimistic if the situation demands it.

They're heading up the Côte de la Quintaine, a category three climbs. The front three have a slender, 40-second lead.

Full results of that intermediate sprint:

1. Sagan (CAN) 20pts
2. Flecha (VCD) 17pts
3. Sabatini (CAN) 15pts
4. Clarke (OGE) 13pts
5. Gerrans (OGE) 11pts
6. Impey (OGE) 10pts
7. De Marchi (CAN) 9pts
8. Albasini (OGE) 8pts
9. Marangoni (CAN) 7pts
10. Moser (CAN) 6pts
11. Koren (CAN) 5pts
12. Bodnar (CAN) 4pts
13. Siutsou (SKY) 3pts
14. Porte (SKY) 2pts
15. Kennaugh (SKY) 1pt

Cannondale have done a lot of work today. They deserve a break, but they're not taking one, and are now leading the fight back against Bakelants.

Tennis update: it's one set all. If Simon Williams is still reading this: sorry.

"The most interesting thing about this region is not some painter fellow but the crusade against the heretics, the cathars," writes Cosi Costello. "It was during this crusade that the abbot commander besieging a town declared 'kill them all, god will know his own' and slaughtered all 20,000 residents." Crumbs, that seems horribly mean.

Canondale, having led the peloton for at least 40 minutes, have relaxed a bit and allowed a three-man breakaway to set off. Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Leopard), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Juan José Oroz are the people involved.

The leading group, as I should probably have mentioned by now, also contains Froome, Contador, Evans and Schleck.

Sagen has indeed won that sprint. Full results to come imminently. Now, will Canondale keep up that manic pace?

It's only a matter of time until I can do just that, armed with nothing but a pair of Guardian Glasses, a cheapo knock-off of Google's original, sending live pictures beaming to the world with every blink and occasionally shouting some breathless commentary.

The Canondale group has stabilised their lead at 2min 30sec or very nearly thereabouts.

The sprint is but a few kilometres away, and Peter Sagen will surely grab those points like a chameleon snaffles a passing dragonfly.

I've now switched from Eurosport to ITV4, but no one has mentioned Toulouse-Lautrec yet, which is disappointing. Back in Corsica they couldn't stop talking about Napoleon.

Italy's Adriano Maloriof the bright=pink Lampre team has withdrawn from the race, as a consequence of the crash towards the start of this stage.

So there's now less than two minutes between the Canondale group and the Cavendish-Greipel group, and the rest of the stage is a long-distance, high-speed chase.

"French TV making a big thing about the number of Sky riders that are not with Froome," writes Pearson Brown. "Are they just helping Thomas? Saving themselves for tomorrow? Or in real difficulty when the pace is only being set by a sprinter's team?" Thomas and Ian Stannard were right at the back 90 minutes or so ago, but I think they've since recovered a bit.

So now the Canondale lads lead, with Cavendish-Greipel a couple of minutes behind. The last half-hour has been really interesting, as Canondale attacked and (eventually) others responded.

Cavendish's group are catching Greipel's, but the Cannondale group remains well clear, with six pistachio green jerseys at the front.

Voigt's solo break is no more.

Blel Kadri has been caught. Voigt, inevitably, has launched a solo break.

This tweet, from Koen de Kort's girlfriend, had be squirming. Crikey.

So there are four interesting grouplets at present. The leading duo, then the Peloton is less than a minute behind, Grapel's group is three minutes behind, and then Cavendish's group a bit behind that.

Meanwhile at Wimbledon, Djokovic has taken the first set of his semi-final against Juan Martín del Potro 7-5.

So they're nearly at the halfway mark, but having already done the worst of the climbing in terms of time we should already be there. The front two lead by 1min 45sec.

Kadri did indeed get the five points at that climb, so he's currently leading the polka-dot-points. Voigs got three points for coming second, and then Kadri's team-mate Romain Bardet got two points, just pipping Rolland, who got one.

Kittel and Greipel have also lost touch with the peloton. Cavendish is two minutes behind that group, who are themselves a couple of minutes behind the leaders.

The front two still enjoy a couple of minutes' lead, with a kilometre to go before the summit of the day's climbiest climb.

The climb is doing some damage, with a Cannondale quintet including Peter Sagan leading things. Cavendish is among those who aren't keeping up.

The front two currently enjoy a lead of about 3min 50sec, just a few kilometres from the top of the Croix de Mounis.

Philippe Gilbert, of Cadel Evans' BMC, is 31 today. His team have given him a new bike. Not sure what was wrong with the old one, but they just did the old switcheroo.

Here's an interview (also in French) with Blel Kadri's dad, who spray-paints cars in a Bordeaux garage. "He isn't a sprinter or a climber, but a fighter with a big heart," he says of his son, adding: "Cheating isn't in his genes."

If Kadri also reaches the top of the day's second climb in first place, he'd get five more points and reach the polka-dot-pinnacle, temporarily at least. And talking of the Croix de Mounis:

Kadri was first over the first climb, the ensuing two-point haul putting him three behind Pierre Rolland in the polka-dot-jersey-scrum.

The peloton should breach the Col du 13 Vents imminently, ahead of schedule. Blel Kadri is a local lad, so we can probably assume that he knows what he's doing on today's stage. Vincent Lavenu, the 26-year-old's manager, says his one problem is that he's "too nice". He was profiled (in French) here earlier today.

The headline from the start of today's stage was the withdrawal of Christian Vande Velde. This from Reuters:

American Christian Vande Velde is out of the Tour de France after being involved in a crash early in the seventh stage.

Organizers said Vande Velde withdrew following a mass pile-up after 11km.

He was one of Garmin-Sharp's top contenders along with fellow American Andrew Talansky, Irishman Dan Martin and Canadian Ryder Hesjedal. Vande Velde also sustained a shoulder problem after crashing on Wednesday.

In an act of unfortunate coincidence, James Richardson announces that Voigt "isn't slowing down" despite his advancing years just as Voigt does indeed slow down – the breakaway duo's advantage has been trimmed by about a minute, and is now 4min 30sec.

Ruaidhri O'Connor's been in touch, suggesting that readers might enjoy this brilliant photograph from yesterday's junior tour of Ireland. I heartily commend it.

Voigt is, of course, the oldest man in the Tour at 41. "It's the passion inside me that keeps me going. I love what I do," he told the Beeb. He also says: "I hope I am allowed to say that the reason I am popular is because of the way I am, the way I race and the way I talk. I am just the old-fashioned, reliable guy and people always know I am after one thing: ‘There is Jens. He will go in the breakaway’." And so it is.

So I'm still waiting for live television footage, but Jens Voigt and Biel Kadri have broken away and currently enjoy a 5min 30sec advantage.

I've just added my contact details to the standfirst, but if you've missed them please email me at simon.burnton@guardian.co.uk, or use Twitter if you prefer. Thanks!

ITV not joining this stage until 2pm, which seems a good hour too late to me, but Eurosport are just an ad or two away. Which is exciting.

Another on-the-spot correspondent. I've got two things to say to you, Max: 1) that's an exceedingly beautiful swimming pool; 2) Precisely how many winds can you feel right now?

"I was 150m from the finish line when Cav took the stage in Marseille, but couldn't send in any photos or tweets due to gigantic data costs," writes Luke Healey. "Can we all just pretend it's Wednesday again so that I can feel like a front-line reporter? Also so that we can all have the pleasure of watching Cav's lead-out train time their attack to perfection, which I feel might not be a given throughout this Tour. Also because I'd really like to be back in Marseille instead of in Manchester." I'm afraid not. Sorry.

It's Tynwald Day! Tynwald Day is the national day of the Isle of Man. There's lots of exciting things happening there, but could Cav cap the lot?

In other exciting news, I just invented the word "calendrical" and then found out that not only does it already exist, but it means what I want it to mean. Hooray for English!

And already some genuinely useful reader input. The bar has been set high, boys and girls.