Victor Campenaerts posted the biggest win of his career Thursday as he claimed the tough and hilly 18th stage of the Tour de France following a three-up sprint.
Two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) kept the race leader’s yellow jersey as the top of the overall standings remained unchanged with just three days of racing left.
Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) spent most of the day at the front and jumped away from a breakaway group some 35 kilometres from the finish together with Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) and former world champion Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers).
Campenaerts, who won a stage at the 2021 Giro d’Italia, patiently waited behind his rivals in the last kilometre and did not panic when Vercher attacked. He stayed in the wheel of Kwiatkowski, then launched his sprint from behind.
The Lotto Dstny rider celebrated his win with his partner and baby on a video call straight after the finish.
“After the [spring] classics, I had a very difficult time,” Campenaerts said, holding back tears. “I had a verbal agreement with the team about extending the contract and I got ignored for a long time and it was really difficult. I was on a long altitude camp but my girlfriend was there and she supported me every day, highly pregnant, and I was struggling to finish my training schedules. But I changed my mind, I have a bright future now still in cycling, I became a father and it was like blue skies, only blue sky.”
There was a flurry of attacks at the start of the rollercoaster 180-kilometre stage featuring five climbs as riders tried to break away before the first ascent, the Col du Festre. But the peloton rode at a high speed, thwarting all those early efforts.
About 20 riders finally managed to open a gap during that climb and were joined by Wednesday’s stage winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) and other talented contenders for the stage win, including team-mate Ben Healy and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).
With the best-placed rider in that large group already lagging nearly 34 minutes behind Pogacar overall, the pack let the break get away. The main contenders for the overall win, including Pogacar and his rivals Jonas Vingegeaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), finished 13 minutes and 40 seconds behind Campenaerts.
Earlier, Healy attacked twice from the leading group in the Cote de Saint-Apollinaire but his move eventually backfired as the Irishman got dropped when others upped the pace. A pivotal moment came in the Cote des Demoiselles when Kwiatkowski accelerated to move away and was later joined by Campenaerts and Vercher. The trio collaborated well as counter-attackers looked hesitant and reacted too late to catch them.
With only three stages left, Pogacar has a comfortable lead of 3min 11sec over two-time defending champion Vingegaard. Tour debutant Evenepoel is lagging 5min 9sec off the pace.
The battle between Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel is expected to resume on Friday. At less than 150 kilometres, the 19th stage to the ski resort of Isola 2000 is short, but tough. Riders will climb above 2,000 metres three times, including the climb to the summit of La Bonette, the highest road in France at an altitude of 2,802 metres. AP
Tour de France stage 18: As it happened . . .
04:47 PM BST
‘We are going to celebrate tonight’
A hugely emotional Victor Campenaerts has been talking to Seb Piquet, the voice of Race Radio. “As a real professional you have to ride the Tour, you have to finish the Tour de France,” said Campanaerts. “Winning a stage is everyone’s dream … I’m not a neo pro, I’ve been dreaming of this for a very long time.
“After the classics, I had a very difficult time. I had a verbal agreement with the team about extending my contract. I was ignored.
“My girlfriend supported me every day… I changed my mind. . . I have a bright future in cycling. I became a father and I saw only blue skies. I felt really good on the bike.
“This win is the sum of the atmosphere in the team. And we’re going to celebrate tonight.
“I went for nine weeks on an altitude camp. She was highly pregnant. She is the hero in this story. I am so grateful that she made this possible, that I had a super long altitude camp to prepare for this Tour de France.
“I had the faith that I will be in good shape. I will be leaving the team, but I’m so happy that I can finish off with maybe the highlight of my career. Again, we will celebrate tonight.
“I think I played it very smart [today]. Also the team gave me a lot of confidence, everyone knew I had very good legs. This was a stage I aimed for in December already. Stage 18, I said, it’s the only stage I see for me to win. I slipped in the break with only one bullet. I played it a bit dirty with showing everyone I as hurting a lot so I didn’t have to do much too many pulls …
“We co-operated very well until the last kilometre. Three hard days to come, but I am looking so much to go home to my girlfriend and my son.”
04:41 PM BST
Pogacar hold onto overall lead before Friday’s Bonette test
The peloton that contains the maillot jaune has crossed the finishing line 13min 40sec after stage winner Victor Campenaerts. There was no action today in the general classification, meaning Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) will take a 3min 11sec lead into Friday’s stage, the penultimate day in the high mountains, over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike). Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) will start tomorrow’s massive stage 5min 9sec adrift of Pogacar.
There were negligible change in the top 10 in the points classification:
Oier Lazanko (Movistar) moved up to fourth in the mountains classification, while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) will start Friday’s stage fifth place in the competition.
And there were no changes in the upper echelons of the young rider classification:
Ineos Grenadiers have moved up to third in the team classification that is being led by UAE Team Emirates:
04:26 PM BST
Campenaerts wins stage 18!
Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) clipped off the front 750 metres from the line, but he was overhauled by Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers). In the end, however, it was Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) who ended up celebrating after he pounced at the last to outsprint Kwiatkowsi. Was Campenaerts sandbagging? Was the Belgian playing up to the TV cameras in this tense finale? Quite possibly, but he will not care a jot after winning the first Tour de France stage of his career.
Slumped over his handlebars, sweat pouring off has face, an emotional Campenaerts is heard: “I can’t believe it,” he says repeatedly.
04:23 PM BST
1km to go
Mattéo Vercher is the latest rider to tighten his shoes in the countdown to what could be the biggest day of the 23-year-old’s career.
04:22 PM BST
2km to go
Tense few minutes in the team cars and boardrooms of Ineos Grenadiers, Lotto Dstny and TotalEnergies. Anthony Turgis won a stage for the French team, but the big team have yet to land a win at this year’s Tour.
04:18 PM BST
5km to go
Absolutely no chance of the leading riders being caught today. Not unless there is a Devon Loch of a collapse. Their advantage has, in fact, grown slightly to 45sec.
04:16 PM BST
7km to go
Michal Kwiatkowsi bedns over to tighten his left shoe, the Pole preparing for what could be a tense finale. Victor Campenaerts has been sitting at the back of the three-man group for a while now. Mattéo Vercher than takes over on the front.
04:15 PM BST
8.5km to go
Victor Campenaerts may be struggling. The popular Belgian has been spotted taking bottles – or attempting to – from neutral service. The leading trio’s advantage is holding at 40sec.
04:09 PM BST
12.5km to go
Jai Hindley and his five-man group trail by around 45sec, while Wout van Aert is 1min 15sec down the road. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) has clipped off the front of Van Aert’s group, but cannot work out why. Surely he does not think he can bridge the gap over to Victor Campenaerts? Probably more likely he will be hoping to get over to Hindley.
04:06 PM BST
15km to go
The stage leaders have conquered to majority of the day’s climbing and are under 15km from the finish line in Barcelonnette. Wout van Aert has not given up the chase, but all of his efforts could be in vain. Van Aert’s team-mate Bart Lemmem is in the second group on the road and not taking turns. I think Visma-Lease a Bike will be be ending their day disappointed. With two riders in the breakaway, they will have wanted more from this stage.
04:02 PM BST
17km to go
The leading trio of Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher have gained another 20sec or so. Difficult to see how they can be reeled back in now. A lack of co-operation in the two chasing groups is playing into the hands of the stage leaders.
03:58 PM BST
20km to go
Wout van Aert and Michael Matthews have been doing turns on the front of the third group on the road. Their big group, however, trail by about a minute. There’s some serious firepower in that group, but they may have left this chase too late.
03:55 PM BST
21.5km to go
Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher are sharing the workload between them, while 18sec down the road it appears that the group containing Bart Lemmem, Jai Hindley, Oier Lazanko, Krists Neilands, and Toms Skujins are a little less well organised. As a result, Kwiatkowsi’s group has extended its advantage to 25sec.
03:49 PM BST
25km to go
No wins for Mattéo Vercher, while Victor Campenaerts has two WorldTour wins on his palmarès. Michal Kwiatkowsi, of course, has won the rainbow bands, two editions of Amstel Gold Race, Strade Bianche twice, Milan-Sanremo and a stack of others. Of this trio, the Pole would appear to be the favourite for the stage win, but they will have to work together if they are going to go all the way to the line. Campenaerts is a former hour record holder and so Kwiatkowsi will be hoping the time trial specialist turned breakaway man does what he does best.
03:45 PM BST
27.5km to go
Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher have a 10sec lead on a five-man chasing group featuring Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Oier Lazanko (Movistar), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek).
03:41 PM BST
Johannessen crashes!
Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) hit the deck on the descent. The Norwegian appeared to lose his front wheel on a left-hand turn while giving chase to Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher. That crash will, in all likelihood, spook the riders behind him who will have witnessed his crash. Bad for them, good fortune for the leading trio who have gained a few more seconds.
03:40 PM BST
35km to go
A small group comprising Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), Steff Cras (TotalEnergies), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) were giving chase to Michal Kwiatkowsi, before, somehow, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) replaced them as the second group on the road.
03:34 PM BST
38km to go
A second big kick from Michal Kwiatkowsi sees the Pole pull clear just shy of the summit. Richard Carapaz, a former team-mate of Kwiatkowsi’s, gave chase. Is this the move of the day?
03:32 PM BST
41km to go
Grimacing and grinding away, Oier Lazanko presses on towards the summit. Bart Lemmem is continually looking over his shoulder, watching out for Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Wout van Aert who will fancy his chances on this rolling finale.
03:27 PM BST
43km to go
The leading septet has been caught, but with just over 2.5km of the final categorised climb of the day to go, one suspects further attacks will follow very shortly.
03:25 PM BST
44km to go
A five-man group comprising Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) and Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty) bridged over to Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). The leading septet has an advntage of 18sec over the remnants of the earlier breakaway, while the peloton is 10m 40sec down.
03:21 PM BST
47km to go
Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) are the new stage leaders. The pair clipped off the front before gaining three or four seconds on the breakaway. Interesting.
03:19 PM BST
50km to go
Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), the Frenchman who has been fairly anonymous at this year’s race, has been pulling along the breakaway on descent off the côte de Saint-Apollinaire. Once they reach the bottom, the road will kick up towards the côte des Demoiselles Coiffées. The peloton is over 10min down the road, and it still has Tim Wellens pulling on the front.
03:16 PM BST
55km to go
Ben Healey has been dropped. Looks like the EF Education-EasyPost puncheur has paid the price for that attack a few minutes back.
03:09 PM BST
58.6km to go
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) shunted themselves towards the front of the breakaway around 1km from the summit. Johannessen crested the climb first to add two points to his account. For the first time today, no points for Oier Lazanko.
03:06 PM BST
61km to go
Geraint Thomas is the latest rider to be dropped. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is showing himself near the front for, I think, the first time at this year’s race.
03:04 PM BST
62km to go
Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale) and Dorian Godon (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale) are struggling as the pace winds up on this climb. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) is looking lively near the front, while Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers) has been drilling it on the front. Could the former world champion win today and save Ineos Grenadiers’ disappointing Tour?
03:00 PM BST
63.5km to go
Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), the American national champion, has counter-attacked off the front. Once again, though, EF Education-EasyPost have had their move neutralised. Moments later Ben Healey attacked for a second time on this climb. Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike) jumped onto the Irishman’s wheel, the pair have a few bike lengths on the breakaway.
02:57 PM BST
65km to go
Ben Healey (EF Education-Easypost) was joined by Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). But it looks like it might come to nothing.
02:55 PM BST
66km to go
Krists Neilands peeked over his left shoulder before putting in a sharp kick, The breakaway hits the bottom of the côte de Saint-Apollinaire – 7km in length – before Birmingham-born Ben Healey clips off the front.
02:52 PM BST
68km to go
All calm out on the roads, with the breakaway having grown its advantage over the peloton to seven minutes. Experience would suggest that attacks will start to come pretty soon, but not sure where. Will somebody launch something on the penultimate categorised climb of the day, the côte de Saint-Apollinaire, or wait until the côte des Demoiselles Coiffées?
02:39 PM BST
82.2km to go
Another summit crested (col de Manse), and another two points in the mountains classification are added to Oier Lazanko’s tally. That moves the Spaniard to within a point of Remco Evenepoel in the competition for the polka dot jersey . . . but some distance behind Tadej Pogacar who leads the classification.
Lazanko may be a decent climber, but we cannot see him going over this monster (Cime de la Bonette – the highest point in this year’s race at 2,802m) ahead of the grimpeurs tomorrow.
02:32 PM BST
85km to go
Tim Wellens continues to tap away on the front of the peloton, monitoring the pace as the road pitches up towards the col de Manse. Riders are emptying bidons of cold water over their heads in an effort to keep cool. The breakaway, meanwhile, has pulled out a little more time, leading the stage by 6min 20sec.
02:21 PM BST
Points mean . . . euros
Michael Matthews won the intermediate spring in Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur a few minutes ago. Not entirely sure why the former winner of the points jersey put in so much energy into adding 20 points to his tally – he started the day 34th in that particular competition. Maybe he was thinking about adding a few euro to his team’s prize pot? By the way, race leader Tadej Pogacar has won €65,580 so far at this year’s race, Biniam Girmay has trousered €57,200 and Jasper Philipsen has earned himself (or his team-mates) €49,500. By contrast, breakaway riders Steff Cras and Geraint Thomas have managed to win just €600 apiece since setting off from from Florence almost three weeks ago.
02:16 PM BST
95km to g0
It is a warm afternoon just north of the Côte d’Azur, with temperatures nudging the 30C mark. There’s a very light breeze – just 7km/h – which will do little to cool these raiders down. Some spectacular backdrops though. The hottest day at this year’s race was stage 16 into Nîmes when the average temperature was 31.1C.
02:10 PM BST
100km to go . . .
. . .and the breakaway has grown out to a healthy five minutes.
01:58 PM BST
Keep the rubber side down!
Scary moment a while back on a relatively benign looking descent when Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), the former French national road champion, almost came a cropper.
01:54 PM BST
108km to go
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), the leader of the points classification, has been spotted back at the race doctor’s car. The Eritrean who has won three stages at this year’s race was having his right calf tended to. It appears he was having an old wound treated. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), meanwhile, dropped back to his team car. The two-time Tour de France winner was getting his left shoe looked at. Speculating here, but he may have had an issue with one of his Boa dials on his shoe. The breakaway’s advantage is holding at around four minutes, while Tim Wellens tows along the peloton in his slipstream.
01:40 PM BST
122km to go
The breakaway has crested the second category three climb of the day, the Côte de Corps, where once again Richard Carapaz was looking lively. The Ecuadorian, however, missed out to Oier Lazanko (Movistar), the Basque who has moved up to fourth in the mountains classification having added four points to his account today.
Lazanko, for those unaware, is a versatile beast who goes well in the spring classics (winner at Clásica Jaén and third at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne), and climbs well too. The 24-year-old stunned everybody when he finished ninth at last month’s Critérium du Dauphiné.
01:33 PM BST
And then there were 36 . ..
The young boy Onley appears to have fallen off the rear of the of the Movistar-powered breakaway. The DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider lost around a minute, but has clawed back another 15sec now and so trails the stage leaders by 45sec. The peloton, meanwhile, is almost four minutes off the pace.
01:27 PM BST
That breakaway in full . . .
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Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike)
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Alex Aranburu (Movistar)
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Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale)
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Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek)
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Frank Van Den Broek (DSM-Firmenich PostNL)
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Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies)
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Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny)
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Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost)
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Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
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Steff Cras (TotalEnergies)
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Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
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Dorian Godon (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale)
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Ben Healey (EF Education-Easypost)
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Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
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Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech)
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Jordan Jegeat (TotalEnergies)
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Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility)
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Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla)
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Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers)
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Oier Lazanko (Movistar)
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Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike)
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Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ)
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Guillaume Martin (Cofidis)
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Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla)
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Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty)
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Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar)
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Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech)
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Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL)
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Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ)
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Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious)
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Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale)
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Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost)
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Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek)
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Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
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Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers)
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Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies)
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Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty)
01:17 PM BST
135km to go
Full list of riders in this breakaway incoming – we promise! Their advantage over the peloton that includes all of the jerseys at the race, has grown to almost three minutes.
01:03 PM BST
148.5km to go
The breakaway – we think it is safe to call it a breakaway now following the easing of pace from the general classification contenders – has around 34 riders in there, including Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL). The 21-year-old Scot, may be a name some are unfamiliar with but he is a rider whose attributes suit this stage to a tee. Ostensibly a climber, Onley is a rider who goes well on the punchy terrain where the neo-pro has registered his best results this season. After beating fellow Briton Stephen Williams – himself a decent puncheur – on Willunga Hill at the Tour Down Under in January, Onley followed up the only win of his short career with some creditable results back home in Europe.
Third at Gran Premio Miguel Indurain behind winner Brandon McNulty and runner-up Maxim Van Gils, was followed by a fifth spot on the final stage at this year’s Itzulia Basque Country. Challenging the likes of Carlos Rodríguez, Juan Ayuso, Marc Soler and Mattias Skjelmose in northern Spain tells you all you need to know about the trajectory this young man is on. He is a classy rider who could, one day, push for honours in the Ardennes classics – and possibly here today.
12:59 PM BST
150km to go
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Ben Healey (EF Education-Easypost), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Alex Aranburu (Movistar) are all in the leading pack. Full details to follow on the composition of this sizeable group. Back in the peloton, UAE Team Emirates appear to have eased off the pace which should, in theory, allow this breakaway to form.
12:52 PM BST
All change on the front . . .
An 18-man group leads the stage, and there are some real ballers in there.
12:49 PM BST
155km to go
Geraint Thomas, the 2018 winner of the Tour de France, is the latest Ineos Grenadiers rider to show his face near the front. At the other end, the sprinters and heavier set riders are labouring towards the rear as the road pitches up.
12:44 PM BST
157km to go
The road is rising as it hits the bottom of the first categorised climb of the day, with Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) doing a turn on the front. Once again, worth noting that Michael Matthews has been active near the front of the peloton.
12:40 PM BST
159km to go
Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) has been subsumed by the peloton, meaning the 32-year-old Belgian Stuyven remains out in front on his own.
12:35 PM BST
165km to go
We have a lone stage leader and his name is Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek). Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) is trapped in no man’s land around 20sec back, but there are a some strong riders near the front of the pack, no doubt keen on bridging over to the former Milan-Sanremo winner.
12:27 PM BST
170km to go
It has been a very fast start to the stage, and as it stands the peloton is flying along at 67km/h. A small split has formed near the pointy end of the bunch, but it is too early to say a breakaway has formed.
12:22 PM BST
175km to go
Like an old concertina, the peloton in pulling and tugging, riders edging forward before they are reeled back in. The invisible elastic is refusing to snap.
12:20 PM BST
176km to go
Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) gained a hand of seconds on the twitchy looking peloton, before a trio of riders bridged over to form a quintet of stage leaders.
12:16 PM BST
178km to go
Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and a handful of others are looking lively from the very start of the stage.
12:14 PM BST
And they’re off . . .
Race director Christian Prudhomme has popped his head out of the shiny red Skoda and dropped his flag to signify the start of racing.
12:01 PM BST
Merckx vs Pogacar
Some bold words from Adam Blythe, the former professional turned Eurosport commentator, who has just stated that he feels Tadej Pogacar is a better rider than Eddy Merckx. Telegraph Sport is not sure it can agree with Mr Blythe. We suspect there is a large degree of recency bias kicking in here. For those too young to know, here’s a potted overview of Merckx’s Tour history . . .
Eddy Merckx
Born: June 17, 1945
Tour de France in numbers
Completed seven editions, won five: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 & 1974
Points classification: 1969, 1971 & 1972
Mountains classification: 1969 & 1970
Combination classification: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 & 1974
Finished 185 stages and won 34
Days in yellow: 108
Eddy Merckx, who became the second rider to win five Tours de France in 1974, is widely regarded as the greatest cyclist to have ever lived.
With a palmarès, or list of wins, that also boasts five Giri d’Italia, one Vuelta a España, three world road titles and 19 monuments of cycling – Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro di Lombardia – it would be almost impossible to argue against Merckx’s standing in the rich pantheon of the sport. In addition, Merckx also took the world hour record in Mexico in 1972 with a distance of 49.431km while the Belgian also claimed the highest number of first-class race victories in a professional career that spanned from 1965 to 1978.
After winning the world amateur title in 1964, Merckx turned professional before winning the first of seven Milan-Sanremo titles the following season aged just 20. In 1967 the Belgian repeated his Milan-Sanremo triumph while adding the Flèche Wallonne one-day classic to his palmarès before making his grand tour debut in the 50th edition of the Giro d’Italia. After winning two stages in Italy and claiming a top 10 finish Merckx went on to take his first of three world champions’ rainbow jerseys, still just 22 years-old.
In 1968 Merckx won the Paris-Roubaix cobbled classic before going on to dominate the Giro d’Italia when he became the first Belgian to win the three-week race while also topping the points and mountains classifications.
Despite Merckx’s brilliance, it is fair to say that his riding style has little in common with cycling’s other greats such as Fausto Coppi or Jacques Anquetil. It has been said that Merckx’s own domestiques, or servants on the road, often struggled to keep up with their team leader as he thrashed away on the pedals pounding his way to another podium.
“With Merckx there were no clever tactics, no camouflage, tactical feints,” wrote one French journalist. “From the first kilometres, often, other riders just knew what was about to happen.”
Merckx’s appetite was legendary. When Christian Raymond, a rider in the 1960s, explained to his daughter how a race had unravelled, she responded: “That Belgian, he doesn’t even leave you the crumbs . . . he’s a cannibal.”
The rider nicknamed ‘The Cannibal’ made his Tour de France debut in 1969. After finishing the opening prologue in Roubaix six seconds behind Germany’s Rudi Altig, the Belgian’s Faema outfit won the second-day team time trial in the Brussels suburb Merckx grew up in to put him into the maillot jaune, the leader’s yellow jersey. After losing the jersey to team-mate Julien Stevens the following day, Merckx regained the overall lead five days later after winning the first of his 34 Tour de France stage wins.
After winning another three stages – two time trials and a day in the mountains – Merckx had built up a lead of eight minutes ahead of a classic Pyrenean stage that included the Peyresourde, Aspin, Soulour, Tourmalet and Aubisque. Around 200m from the summit of the Tourmalet the Cannibal attacked before dropping Roger Pingeon and Raymond Poulidor. Merckx ended up taking the stage following a 140km solo breakaway with a massive winning margin of eight minutes pushing his overall lead to 16 minutes.
“Merckxisimo” ran the headline in L’Équipe, a reference to Fausto ‘Il Campionissimo’ Coppi who, himself, was no stranger to the lone breakaway. Not only had Merckx won his debut Tour de France, but also scooped up six stages while also topping the points, mountains, combination and combativity classifications. The quiet, often shy, Belgian had crushed all before him while the die had been cast for his domination.
The Belgian successfully defended his title the following year while equalling Charles Pélissier’s record from 1930 of eight stage wins. Once again Merckx took the mountains, combination and combativity classifications.
After making his Tour de France debut in 1970, Spain’s Luis Ocaña returned the following year alongside fellow contenders Joop Zoetemelk of Holland and the Dutchman Lucien Van Impe hoping to find a chink in Merckx’s seemingly impenetrable armour.
Following a strong start from Merckx, Ocaña and Zoetemelk escaped on the ascent of the Puy de Dôme before the Spaniard took the stage. Days later, on the short mountain stage from Grenoble to Orcières, Merckx was once again dropped before Ocaña took a second stage to take the maillot jaune. During the following day’s transition stage Merckx produced a fearsome ride, though remained in Ocaña’s shadow.
Disaster, though, struck for the Spaniard during a rain-soaked 14th stage in the Pyrenees. Merckx had attacked on the ascent of the Col de Menté. Ocaña gave chase on the descent before crashing on a hairpin. As the Spaniard got to his feet Zoetemelk swerved into the maillot jaune who soon left the race, battered and distraught, in a helicopter. Merckx later regained the leader’s jersey though refused to wear it the following day out of respect for the luckless Ocaña. Following his brief wobble, Merckx retained the Tour de France before returning the following year in the world champions’ jersey to claim a fourth title.
The rematch between Merckx and Ocaña, sadly, never materialised after the Belgian missed the 1973 edition which was won by the Spaniard.
Merckx’s fifth and final Tour de France triumph came in 1974 after, considering his high standards, he had endured a disappointing season having not won a single spring classic. He had, though, just won a fifth Giro d’Italia to equal Alfredo Binda and Coppi as the most successful riders in the Italian grand tour.
Despite later admitting that “the wear and tear was beginning to show”, Merckx won an incredible seven stages in the 61st edition of the race before beating Raymond ‘the Eternal Second’ Poulidor to the top spot on the Paris podium.
The Belgian returned the following year when he had to, for the first time, settle for second spot behind Bernard Thévenet while winning the final two of his 34 career stages – both time trials.
A sixth-placed finish in 1977 marked the end of The Cannibal’s Tour de France career. Merckx, nowadays, runs a successful bike manufacturing company and remains a regular guest of the Tour de France organisers.
So, you decide: Merckx vs Pogacar
11:35 AM BST
Hello
Good morning and welcome to our live rolling blog from stage 18 at the Tour de France, the 179.5 kilometre run from Gap to Barcelonnette.
With five category three climbs peppered throughout the stage – along with a few uncategorised kickers – today is a day that should, in theory, favour the baroudeurs. By our calculations, there are 12 teams – TWELVE – that have yet to win a stage at this year’s Tour, so we expect to see an almighty battle to get into the day’s breakaway. Of those squads who have not won a stage, just Soudal-Quick Step have any genuine hope of cracking the top three in the general classification thanks to Remco Evenepoel who is enjoying a very impressive Tour debut (third at 5min 9sec)
Without boring you senseless with a long list of riders that may make the breakaway or stand a chance of winning the stage, here are the winless teams we expect will be trying to get one, two or even three riders into what we think will be a massive breakaway: Bahrain Victorious, Bora-Hansgrohe, Cofidis, Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers, Israel-Premier Tech, Lidl-Trek, Lotto Dstny, Movistar, Uno-X Mobility.
Before the stage starts, here’s a quick look at the standing in the main three competitions.
Ok we lied, here are some potential stage winners: Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lisma Lease A Bike), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious).
Anyhow, racing gets under way at 12.20pm which is when we will return to kickstart this blog into action.
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