News and stage 18 report
So who is excited for tomorrow? I know I am. I’ll be back on blog duty bringing you updates on the race up Alpe d’Huez. In the meantime, here’s the latest from Jeremy Whittle in Orcieres Merlette, his full report on today’s stage will be on the site a little later on:
Tom Pidcock, who nabbed tenth on today’s stage, tells TNT that he is not being allowed in the breakaway anymore and that he will be focusing on his GC position now. Do you believe him?
Points classification standings
Pedersen’s lead back to a more comfortable 32 after that breakaway ride today:
1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 477
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) 445
3. Biniam Girmay (NSN) 361
4. Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) 271
5. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 230
6. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 165
7. Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) 159
8. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) 131
9. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) 130
10. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) 129
King of the Mountains standings
Heartbreakingly close for Paret-Peintre:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 70
2. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) 69
3. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 63
4. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) 36
5. Paul Seixas (Decathlon) 34
6. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) 30
7. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 22
8. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) “
9. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) 20
10. Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) 18
GC standings after stage 18
I said no change in the top ten, but Carapaz has replaced Yannis Voisard of Tudor:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 64hrs 35mins 13secs
2. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe): +4mins 32secs
3. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +6mins 51secs
4. Paul Seixas (Decathlon): +7mins 11secs
5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +9mins 22secs
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +10mins 14secs
7. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +12mins 50secs
8. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5): +12mins 58secs
9. Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies): +14mins 04secs
10. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost): +21mins 00secs
Updated
Stage 18 official result
Confirmation of Carapaz’s victory:
1. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 4hrs 26mins 21secs
2. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla): +45secs
3. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) “
4. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step): +1min 14secs
5. Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility): +1min 57secs
6. Raúl García (Movistar): +2mins 12secs
7. Pablo Castrillo (Movistar): +4mins 30secs
8. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +4mins 35secs
9. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe) “
10. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) “
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There’s a half-hearted sprint for the line from the GC group, but there will be no change in the top ten from yesterday.
With the stage decided, will we see any attacks in the GC race? Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe are riding on the front. I’ll stay with this until they finish.
Schmid follows up his stage 13 win with a second place today, with Jorgenson comes in third. Paret-Peintre crosses fourth, he’s cut the polkadot jersey battle to one point but it could have been more.
Richard Carapaz wins stage 18!
Brilliant ride from the EF Education-EasyPost rider, he bided his time and then blew the breakaway to pieces on the final climb. Carapaz has been in the hunt a lot of over the last few stages and now has his prize.
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1.5km to go Carapaz is riding away. The stage is his now.
2km to go Carapaz has put 20 seconds into the rest and now Paret-Peintre is going backwards. The Frenchman is fourth on the road, which would see him agonisingly short of Pogacar’s polkadot points tally.
3.5km to go Carapaz goes again and Paret-Peintre can’t go this time. Jorgenson and Schmid had just got back on but they’re now all in a battle for the minor places. Carapaz timed that to perfection.
4km to go Carapaz put down the power and Paret-Peintre goes with him. They’ve distanced the rest of the group, it’s surely between these two now.
4.5km to go Jorgenson makes a little dart but Carapaz shuts that down. This is very cagey.
5km to go The gradient is tipping towards double figures, back in the peloton Decathlon look to be lining up near the front. Does Paul Seixas fancy testing Del Toro’s legs? That battle for the young rider’s white jersey is veyr much alive.
6km to go The road is about to get steeper, but still they ride together.
8km to go it feels like the calm before the storm, the leaders are about a kilometre away from the categorised part of this climb. When will Carapaz strike out?
12km to go Jorgenson attacks again. This time the Visma-Lease a Bike man went as Johannessen was getting bottles from the team car, but he was quickly shut down.
15km to go No moves as yet from the breakaway riders, all six together as they glide down a short descent before starting to go up again. The Orcières-Merlette climb is 7.1km at an average of 6.7%.
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Two more mountains points for Paret-Peintre!
A quick acceleration and the Frenchman is now just five points behind Pogacar in the race to become king of the mountains. Third place on the stage will be good enough now.
20km to go Garcia is nearly back with the leaders, but if he’s already struggling now I’m not sure he has the legs when the road ramps up.
21km to go Brandon McNulty has abandoned. He’s been struggling with illness all day and looked very lonely cycling by himself in front of the broom wagon. That is a blow to UAE Team Emirates.
Updated
23km to go Garcia has dropped off following that attack, so six has become five. That was an incredibly poor prediction from me. Wow.
25km to go We’re at the foot of the category three Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes. I assume these six will stay together here, but as I type that Jorgenson attacks on a roundabout.
34km to go Ian Stannard is a bit grumpy in the Netcompany Ineos team car. Understandable given they had two riders in the break and missed the move. Bernal and Arensman should not both be watching these leaders ride away, but they are. Another odd Tour for what was once cycling’s dominant force. Oscar Onley may have added something had he not been injured but Dave Brailsford’s return has failed to conjure any results so far, no stage wins and no rider in the top ten of any of the main classifications for Netcompany Ineos.
43km to go After working to get across, Bernal and Gregoire will be kicking themselves they have missed this move in the break. They’re more than 30 seconds behind now.
45km to go And there you have it, Carapaz and Paret-Peintre have gunned off to join the escapists. Engelhardt has dropped off already, so we’re looking at an elite group of six for these final two categorised climbs.
47km to go With the second group on the road seemingly giving up the chase, we’re seeing attacks off the front of the breakaway. Johannessen, Jorgenson, Schmid, plus Raul Garcia (Movistar) and Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla) have got 11 seconds. Carapaz surely won’t be letting this go.
Updated
51km to go The breakaway are on a descent now and it doesn’t look like the chasers are catching them. The gap now between the leading two groups on the road is 1min 20secs. That isn’t to say a rider from that rump of 28 won’t try something on steeper slopes, but these two groups aren’t coming together.
Pedersen takes the intermediate sprint!
Chapeau, Mads! He’s earned every one of those 25 points. No one dared to go with him. Now the question is whether he tries to hang around for the final couple of climbs.
“Great that S4C are showing the stages (and here’s hoping you manage to avoid the diplomatic incident that might become known as ‘Goobledegook Gate’),” writes Brónagh McAtasney, (they weren’t my words or my views, guys). “Just a reminder that TG4 (previously Teilifís na Gaeilge) broadcast all the stages in their entirety every year. You could watch it alongside your updates and pick up a bit of Irish while you’re at it.”
Slainte, Brónagh and over to you, Guardian readers. I expect emails next year from newly Irish fluent Tour fans. All of this serves to remind me that I’m fortunate to have access to pay-TV and what a travesty it is that ITV chose not to bid for Tour rights.
On that note, Gareth Edwards emails in: “Following your comment on Whoop data, TNT and the highlights on Channel 5 just aren’t the same and I feel my enthusiasm for the Tour dimming as a result. At least Ned Boulting and David Millar have a podcast that preserves a bit of the old ITV flair.”
A few years ago I had a lengthy phone conversation with Ned Boulting to preview some edition of the Tour, he’s a lovely man and the TV coverage is worse for his absence. I also miss David Millar’s insights and dashing good looks.
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67km to go The next marker on the road is the intermediate sprint in little more than 11km. Pedersen is still in that lead breakaway group and has to be gunning for the full 25 points on offer there. The Dane has responded incredibly to Philipsen’s result yesterday.
Two more polka-points for Paret-Peintre
72km to go Carapaz goes with the Frenchman but doesn’t push too hard, maybe he has grander designs for today. Paret-Peintre cuts Pogacar’s lead to seven in the mountains classification. There are a maximum of 12 points left on the road today in the battle for polkadots, so Paret-Peintre could claim the jersey by the end of the stage but can finish no lower than third and would need to claim the penultimate two points on offer at the top of Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes too.
74km to go The breakaway riders aren’t letting the group behind them close the gap too much, they are working hard as they head up the category three Côte des Terrasses. There’s a couple more mountains classification points on offer here, which no doubt Paret-Peintre will be pushing for.
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Great intel coming in from you lovely readers on the support car drivers. Matthew Cobb writes in: “According to the France 2/3 TV commentary the other day, all the drivers are ex-professional cyclists. It’s a precondition imposed by the Tour organisers so that the cars can predict what the riders might do and avoid problems.”
Although Charlie Tinsley casts some doubt on that: “I won a ride in the neutral support care on the London to Canterbury stage in 2007. The driver drove with his knees all the way whilst rolling up cigarettes (which were distributed to the rest of the support cars via a motorcycle cameraman) and leering in a particularly gallic manner at any exposed female flesh. I was very hungover and terrified.
“What a great day out that was! Thanks Mavic.”
86km to go While they’re waffling on about Whoop recovery data on TNT (honestly, give it a rest), the 14 riders in the break have an issue behind them in the shape of a 28-strong group of chasers that includes the likes of Quinn Simmons, Michael Matthews and Bruno Armirail.
Five points to Paret-Peintre!
90km to go Mountain wizadry as the group of Carapaz and Paret-Peintre catch the breakway group and almost immediately head off to pick up the polkadot points. It’s the Soudal Quick-Step man who gets them, taking his defecit to Pogacar in the mountains classification down to single digits by my count.
“Hi Tom,” emails in Rich (just Rich). “I am sure none of the UK readers of the fine Guardian MBM would dream of having live TV coverage of the Tour on (alongside your coverage, of course) whilst they are supposed to be working on a sunny Thursday afternoon. So I doubt they’d like to be reminded that the last four stages of this year’s Tour are available free-to-air in the UK on S4C (iPlayer or YouTube).
“The commentary is currently a joy of apparent gobbledegook interspersed with outbursts of ‘Mads Pedersen’ and ‘Carapaz’ but I’m sure it’s even better if you actually speak Welsh.”
That is true public service broadcasting from Rich, there.
95km to go I’m constantly amazed by the driving in the support cars. We’re watching Søren Wærenskjold getting patched up as he hangs on the edge of one motor while another in Lidl-Trek livery whizzes past at close quarters. The riders must get used to it but it makes my heart skip a beat.
97km to go There is another group out 40-odd seconds ahead of the peloton but it appears to be lacking the harmony required for the chase. It has a couple of EF riders in there, who have teammates in the group ahead, which maybe explains it.
100km to go Egan Bernal has joined the riders chasing the breakaway. They are 40 seconds behind the breakaway group, who are some 2mins 30secs ahead of the main bunch.
Updated
104km to go The riders are creeping up Côte de Monteynard, a 9.7km climb at 5%. It’s a category two, so elite climbing skills are not required to hang on.
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…
Mountains points to Paret-Peintre!
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.
Updated
150km to go We have a couple of EF Education-EasyPost 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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
William Fotheringham's stage guide
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:
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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.
