10.26am BST

Bon matin, tout le monde. And welcome to live coverage of stage three of the 2014 Tour de France.

After the fireworks of Jenkin Road on Sunday, today's stage from Cambridge to London should be a far more sedate affair. The parcours is flatter than a cheap battery so the sprinters will be to the fore. There are no awkward little ramps in the final kilometre to worry the pure speedsters, so it's made for the in-form Marcel Kittel, winner of the opening stage, or the Gorilla, Andre Griepel, who should enjoy the wide expanses of the Mall. It's the same finish as the 2012 Olympic road race – Mark Cavendish was among the favourites then and would've been among the favourites now. Alexander Vinokourov, Rigoberto Uran and a flurry of attacks kept him out of the running two years ago. This time around a stretch of Harrogate Tarmac has done the damage.

Profile and map of today's stage

Profile and map of Tour de France 2014 stage 3. Graphic: Guardian

At 155km today's stage is the shortest until Stage 17 in the Pyrenees and time-wise it's likely to be the quickest. The riders set off at 12.15pm BST and should be crossing the finish line at around 3.45pm BST. So about three-and-a-half hours from Cambridge to London, which is incidentally roughly the same time as it takes on a First Capital Connect train. And we're expecting large crowds again, with people scrambling for space and crammed in next to each other between Cambridge and London, much as they would be on a First Capital etc and so forth.