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9 hours ago
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Key events
108km to go The peloton has largely given up on the break, they now have a 1min 30secs gap, but there a splinter groups is still chasing the eight men at tête de la course. Nine riders, including Carapaz, Paret-Peintre and Healy are trying to close a 1min 8secs gap.
117km to go Gregoire has bridged across the 35-second gap to the breakaway. The peloton aren’t letting those eight get away yet, EF are chasing this as they desperately want a stage win.
127km to go French national champion Romain Gregoire has gone off after the break on the descent. What a stunning sight this is as the peloton winds down the mountain hairpins, from above the riders look a bit like marbles going downhill.
129km to go The riders up the road with Pedersen are: Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Nicholas Breuillard (TotalEnergies). They have earned a lead of 35secs on the peloton.
139km to go Now this is interesting, Mads Pedersen has got himself in a small breakaway group of seven riders. His lead in the green jersey standings has come under threat from Jasper Philipsen after the Alpecin-Premier Tech sprinter won yesterday. It’s not just the intermediate sprint points that Pedersen might fancy, he has said he would like to win a mountain stage too…
148km to go Paret-Peintre makes the move to take the ten polkadot points on offer on Côte d’Engins, Carapaz gets eight. That result means Pogacar’s lead in the mountains classification is down to 14 points. That marker doesn’t signal the end of the climb, however. The road continues to go up for another 15km before the descent towards Varces-Allières-et-Risset.
150km to go We have a couple of EF Education First riders off the front, Sean Quinn and, unsurprisingly, Healy. They’ve been joined by Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla, who won stage 13. Their lead is 15 seconds, so the elastic hasn’t snapped yet.
155km to go The break is no more. The peloton has swallowed it up amid a series of attacks from the likes of Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz and Valentin Paret-Peintre.
158km to go And it has, the gap is down to 15secs. Interestingly two of UAE Team Emirates worker bees, Brandon McNulty and Adam Yates, are struggling at the back of the peloton. McNulty looked in rough shape during the stage presentation earlier. I don’t think this matters for Pogacar, he can handle himself, but Del Toro could do with a couple of lieutenants, especially if he’s not 100%.
161km to go The five riders up the road are Mathis le Berre (TotalEnergies), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Nikolya Vinokurov, Aaron Gate (XDS Astana) and Lewis Askey (NSN). They managed to get 45secs on the main bunch but that is about to disappear rapidly.
174km to go Five riders have broken away and churned out a lead of around 20 seconds. That is unlikely to last when they hit Côte d’Engins shortly.
177km to go There are reports of illness in the UAE Team Emirates camp, Adam Yates has been struggling the last couple of days and now Isaac del Toro is said to be unwell. Given the stresses the Tour places on the body, in many ways it’s remarkable that 163 of the 184 riders are still going.
180km to go The peloton is gunning along at nearly 60km/h, no breakaway yet but the first climb is coming up fast so that won’t remain the case for long.
Kilometre zero
After little bit of a delay due to Cofidis’ Milan Fretin suffering a technical, Christian Prudhomme finally waves us off.
The riders are rolling out from Voiron to kilometre zero. Flag drop due in 8km.
Yesterday was a big moment for stage winner Jasper Philipsen, the Alpecin–Premier Tech rider had finished in the top five in five sprints without winning one before stage 17, with the threatening to get away from him.
A second stage win for Alpecin–Premier Tech is probably par the course, given they do not have a GC contender and Philipsen has been bailed out to some degree by Mathieu van der Poel, who won stage nine. Van der Poel was on leadout services for Philipsen yesterday and duly delivered.
Asked by Reuters for his feelings at the stage finish in Voiron, Philipsen was very honest.
“It’s a relief,” Philipsen said. “It was a rollercoaster of emotions in this Tour de France. The first stages were just horrible, I couldn’t find myself, I couldn’t find the feeling I was hoping for.“
“I was just disappointed, angry that I couldn’t take a stage win,” the 28-year-old added.
“I didn’t find my feeling, the team had to deal with it.
“I just doubted myself. I did everything I could, we did amazing preparation with the team but I was just not myself.
“Was it because of the heat? It was really horrible. Was it something else? I don’t know, but I was not at the level I was hoping for.
“Mentally, it was a rollercoaster.“
Mads Pedersen’s lead in the green jersey race is down to just seven points, but Philipsen said “it will be very hard” to dethrone the Dane. Today is not the day for that, but it does add intrigue to the closing stages of a race where the GC battle is all-but over.
Here’s a visualisation of today’s parcours:
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William Fotheringham's stage guide
William Fotheringham
Stage 18, Thursday 23 July: Voiron to Orcières-Merlette, 185.2km
South to a famous location in Tour history: it is 55 years since Luis Ocaña put Eddy Merckx to the sword on these roads and 37 since Laurent Fignon and Greg LeMond duelled here. Chances are this stage’s winner will emerge from a break, as the stage is not tough enough to concern Vingegaard and Pogacar. There are two serious climbs early on, but the final ascent to Orcières is more nagging than steep. The win will go to a climber who is an astute tactician: if Ben Healy is out of the overall picture, this will suit the Irishman.
Check out William Fotheringham’s full stage-by-stage guide:
Preamble
With the real quiz of Alpe d’Huez to come on Friday there will be a number of riders not named Tadej Pogacar who will fancy taking a prized stage win at Orcières today. Five climbs, but none in the hors category, means that this 185km stage will be brutal, but not quite as masochistic as others in the road book.
With the uphill road starting after just 20km, we will see splits early and opportunities for climbers such as Richard Carapaz and Valentin Paret-Peintre to get away. There are a maximum of 29 polkadot points on offer today, which could see those aforementioned riders move within range of Pogacar in the mountains classification standings should either secure a full house. Food for thought, at least until the race leader inevitably sets off for a solo victory up Alpe d’Huez tomorrow.
The battle for third on the podium is also a live concern. The French public will be roaring on Paul Seixas to beat Pogacar’s teammate Isaac del Toro over the last few days of the Tour. That contest has been given extra bite amid noise that the home hero is getting preferential treatment from doping control (a claim rejected by the authorities) by so far avoiding being woken in the middle of the night to provide a sample. A very Tour story, this one.
