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O’Connor has dropped Rubio with an acceleration – he’s making a move for the stage win, just under 16km from the finish.
O’CONNOR ATTACKS
The scene from high up the Col de la Loze.
Lipowitz has dropped Jorgenson.
O’Connor and Rubio are extending their advantage over Lipowitz and Jorgenson. They’re 1:35 ahead of them, and 3:10 ahead of the peloton.
O’Connor and Rubio, the two riders at the front of the race.
Jegat has now been dropped.
Jegat is the 14th and last rider in the peloton, struggling to hang on.
There are 14 riders in the peloton, being led by Simon Yates.
Rubio and O’Connor lead Lipowitz by 1:15, and the yellow jersey group by 3:15.
20KM TO GO
Lipowitz has caught Jorgenson, and the American is sitting on his wheel.
Lipowitz isn’t making any inroads on Rubio and O’Connor, though, who are still 1:10 ahead. This duo can start dreaming of a stage win – notwithstanding a charge from Pogačar and Vingegaard later on this mountain.
Lipowitz is the day’s big winner as things stand, still over two minutes ahead of the peloton and with his podium place looking very secure.
Incidentally, Ben Healy is the only rider in the top ten not in the peloton, meaning his ninth place on GC is under threat from Jegat.
Simon Yates is the Visma rider leading the peloton, with Kuss on his wheel, and Vingegaard on his.
Soler is done, and Visma take over. They’re going to try once again to break Tadej Pogačar.
There are just under 20 riders now in the peloton, still being led by Soler.
Jorgenson has been dropped by the other two leaders – perhaps he’s out of legs, or perhaps he’s sitting up to help Vingegaard.
The regrouping of the peloton means both Vingegaard and Pogačar have reinforcements – Kuss and Simon Yates for the former, Soler, Narváez and Adam Yates for the latter. Soler leads the peloton for now.
Lipowitz still has about 2 minutes to make up on Vingegaard to take him over in second on the virtual GC, and you imagine the gap will start coming down soon now they’re climbing.
So all the GC riders are together again, apart from Lipowitz, who’s almost three minutes ahead as Picnic-PostNL lead the peloton onto the mountain.
The Onley / Vauquelin chase group has caught the yellow jersey group. We now have a peloton again!
Lipowitz starts the climb a minute behind the leaders, and with a head start of about 2:30 over the yellow jersey group.
It climbs at 6.5% for 26.4km, and with many fluctuations in that gradient, with some horrible gradients. It even broke Tadej Pogačar two years ago – who will be its victims this time?
The leading trio have started the Col de la Loze – thought by many to be the hardest mountain of this whole Tour de France.
COL DE LA LOZE
Gall attacks again, but is again shut down, as Roglič closes it down – doing his Red Bull teammate Lipowitz a favour.
Further behind, Vauquelin is rallying. He’s now back to the Onley group, which is almost back to within 1:45 of the yellow jersey group.
Gall keeps trying to attack out of the yellow jersey group, not able to go clear.
Jorgenson, O’Connor and Rubio lead Lipowitz by just over a minute, and the yellow jersey group by about 2:15. It’s stalemate in the latter.
30KM TO GO
There’s no chase at all for Lipowitz – he’s now over a minute ahead!
Lipowitz is over 20 seconds up the road from the yellow jersey group, but still 1:20 behind the leaders.
Nobody wants to take responsibity for chasing Lipowitz. This is a good move from the German.
Now Lipowitz attacks! He’s got a gap, too.
Roglič is taking a turn at the front now, but it’s far from a committed one. The gap continues to grow, to 1:30.
Gall is the rider who’s doing the pace-setting in the chase group, but he doesn’t look happy about it. This in an awkward part of the race to have to put your nose to the wind – it’s a length valley section, leading to the start of the final climb.
Jorgenson, O’Connor and Rubio have grown their lead to a minute. If it keeps growing at this rate, the stage win could come into play.
The leading trio are 45 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey group, with the Onley group 3 minutes down and the Vaquelin group at 4:30.
40KM TO GO
Gall is trying to attack now. All this is bad news for him, as he stood to rise on GC.
They have indeed caught them, and the pace remains completely off.
All this is good news for Lipowitz – he’s set to rejoin the yellow jersey group.
That trio already has 20 seconds on the others.
Jorgenson and Rubio have gone with O’Connor.
O’Connor has taken advantage of the slowdown and attacked.
Visma aren’t happy in the front group. Their two riders are trying to get other riders to hel the pace-setting.
Further behind, Onley is 2:55 behind, and Vauqulin is at 4:30. These are huge gaps already, and are only going to get bigger on the Col de la Loze.
Since catching up to Arensman, Lipowitz’s defecit has remained at about 40 seconds to the leaders.
Lipowitz is regrouping and starting to make up ground again. He’s now 40 seconds behind the leaders, and will now have a companion as he’s just caught Arensman.
50KM TO GO
Lipowitz has now fallen to over a minute behind. He’s having a hard time on this descent.
Here are the new KOM rankings. Pog is bearing down on Martinez.
Jorgenson is setting a fast pace on this descent. It’ not an attack, but he’s putting Pogačar (and the others) under pressure.
Lipowitz is losing ground on the descent, now 50 seconds behind the leaders. The Onley group is holding its own though, at 2:12.
60KM TO GO
Here was Vingegaard attacking Pogačar on the Madeleine. He didn’t succeed in dropping him, but is looking up for the fight.
Now the Onley group, which also features Johannessen, reaches the top, just over 2 minutes behind the leaders. The Scott has already fallen to 5th on the virtual GC, and has 3:46 of a buffer on Gall, who is still in that lead group.
Lipowitz reaches the top about 30 seconds beind the leaders. His third-place on GC is safe for now, but could come under threat from his teammate Roglič.
Vingegaard comes through to ensure he gets the maximum points at the summit of the Madeleine, and Pogačar comes through for second. That’s bad news for all of the climbers who were targeting the polka-dot jersey.
KOM – COL DE LA MADELEINE
Jorgenson still leads with just 1km left to climb. It doesn’t look like another attack is coming from Vingegaard on this climb – all it would likely achieve now is to drop his teammate.
Jorgenson still leads the front group, and is starting to drop riders – Arensman is being distanced, putting into peril his hopes for the polka-dot jersey.
70KM TO GO
Onley is isolated, and having to lead a chase group that’s 40 seconds behind Lipowitz all by himself.
Lipowitz is already 30 seconds behind the lead group featuring the yellow jersey, Vingegaard, and his Red Bull teammate Roglič.
This seems early for Vingegaard to have caught Jorgenson – surely he would have wanted his teammate for the valley road ahead, after the descent?
Vingegaard and the yellow jersey have already made it up to the front group. Jorgenson is here for Vingegaard, and is setting the pace.
That move was made 72km from the finish. Vigegaard is living up to his word and giving this a real go today, with lots of road still to come.
Pogačar has his mouth open, but not as wide as on the Ventoux.
Vingegard goes! But Pogačar follows.
VINGEGAARD ATTACKS
Lipowitz is only just managing to stay with Kuss, Pogačar and Vingegaard.
There are still over 5km left until the summit. Will Vingegaard attack before then, or leave it to Kuss to set the pace?
This is the move! Only Pogačar, Vingegaard and Lipowitz are still with Kuss.
In the peloton, Kuss takes over and has accelerated.
Roglič is leading the front group, but the peloton is bearing down on them, now just 55 seconds behind.
Campanaerts is finished, and now it’s Simon Yates’ turn.
Vauquelin is digging deep, but still losing ground 1:25 behind the peloton. The Frenchman has managed to overtake Ben Healy, despite being dropped before him.
Wellens has been brought back into the peloton. Even if he can’t hang about to offer Pogačar an assistance, the yellow jersey still has Yates and Narváez for support.
Vauquelin is already 45 seconds behind the peloton.
Primož Roglič in the break, from earlier in the day. There’s now just 6 riders with him in the front group.
Ben Healy is the latest to be dropped out of the peloton. There’s only about 20 riders left now.
Campanaerts takes over from Benoot, the gap now 2:12. Visma are setting something up.
The rider who is immediately behind Vauquelin on GC, Gall, is now leading the front group, his teammate Armirail having at last finished his long shift.
Vauquelin’s dropped. His 6th place on GC is under serious threat, with such a long way still to ride.
Bad news for French fans – Kévin Vauquelin is at the back of the peloton and struggling to hold on.
Van Aert is done, having brought the leaders’ advantage down to 2:40. Now Benoot takes over for Visma.
Picnic-PostNL’s Warren Barguil is dropped from the peloton. He’s a key helper for Onely, who is already under attack from Red Bull, and relying instead on Visma and UAE to chase.
This new lead group has a 2:50 advantage over the peloton. That means Roglič has now replaced his Red Bull teammate Lipowitz in virtual third-place.
80KM TO GO
Armirail has continued to drag the 6-man chase group up to Jorgenson and Arensman, and the catch has just been made.
Here comes Visma-Lease a Bike! They’ve taken over at the front and have upped the pace, with Van Aert leading.
Back in the peloton, Politt swings off, and Soler takes over the pace-setting.
The chase group is coming back to the two leaders, bringing them back to within 15 seconds.
Wellens is beind distanced from the chase group. He put a lot into his effort to attack earlier today, and might now be paying for that effort.
Behind Jorgenson and Arensman, who still lead the race by 22 seconds, the chase group is being pulled along by Armirail, with Gall on his wheel. Also present are Roglič, Wellens, O’Connor, Rubio and Baudin.
Unfortunate news about Enric Mas has come through – the Spaniard has abandoned the race. He was seen struggling earlier, dropping from the peloton early on the Gladon. A Tour that promised much when he led the race on Mont Ventou and looked poised for a stage victory has ended in disappointment.
DNF – ENRIC MAS
Martinez has also been caught, and dropped, by the peloton. He won’t be getting any more KOM points today, while his rival Arensman currently leads the race with Jorgenson.
Many of those who were in the chase group have been caught by the peloton, including Jegat.
How to watch stage 18 of the Tour de France
Will Visma-Lease a Bike make a move on the Madeleine? Tadej Pogačar and his teammates will have braced themselves for the possibility of a Visma onslaught today potentially starting here.
Jorgenson and Arensman start the climb, 35 seconds ahead of the chase group featuring Roglič and Gall, and a whole 3 minutes ahead of the peloton.
COL DE LA MADELEINE
Jorgenson and Arensman managed to distance the others on the descent, and now lead the race ahead of the rest of the break by about 30 seconds.
The gap between the leaders and the peloton continues to grow as the near the bottom of the descent and the start of the Madeleine. It’s now up to 2:50.
90KM TO GO
Mühlberger has crashed on the descent. He was back up and running straight away, but has some ground to make up to return to the front group.
Bad news now for Martinez though – he’s been dropped out of the front group on the descent. Given how much he was struggling on the last climb, he can ill afford to start the Col de la Madeleine with a deficit if he’s to take the points he needs to defy the challengers for his polka-dot jersey.
The lead group are descending quicker than the peloton. They’ve grown their lead to about 2:30.
100KM TO GO
Here are the new KOM classifications. Martinez recovered by the top of the climb – albeit with the help of a sticky bottle – and now sees his hold on the polka-dot jersey strengthened:
Leknessund is struggling on the descent, and has been dropped out of the lead group.
A dodgy moment on the descent in the break, as Jorgenson and García Pierna nearly come together.
As Politt leads the peloton over the Glandon, there are still over 40 riders left in it.
UAE’s Sivakov is out the back of the peloton as they near the top. Still it’s Politt leads – amazing ride by the German, out-riding even one of his team’s key climbing domestiques.
Martinez takes the maimum points, taking the points ahead of Arensman.
KOM – COL DU GLANDON
Martinez is still in the lead group and ready to sprint for the KOM points.
Wellens has had a mechanical. He’s already nearly back in the lead group though – clearly the Belgian is feeling fresh.
Less than 1km to the summit. The break leads the chasers by 50 seconds, and the peloton by 1:50.
110KM TO GO
Woods is being dropped out of the chase group. He’s one of the men up there in the KOM classifications, who now looks like he won’t be picking up any points at the summit.
Berthet has attacked from the chase group and gone clear.
Martinez is still just about clinging on to the front group. He has just 2km left to climb until the summit.
Armirail’s work has seen the leaders’ advantage over the peloton grow to almost two minutes, but Politt is keeping it pegged for now.
Frank van den Broek is keen to get out of the 8-man chase group in between the leaders and the peloton, and has made a few attacks, but to no avail yet.
Martinez is making use of a sticky bottle with his team car behind, and now he’s back with the lead group. He’s pushing the limits of what he can get away with with the commissaires!
Martinez is still just about hanging on, but he’s struggling. He’s out the saddle and keeps losing the wheel of the man in front of him.
Still Politt leads the peloton. UAE are well represented in the group, with Soler, Sivakov, Narváez and Adam Yates all present, and also have Wellens up the road.
Martinez is at the back of the lead group and struggling to hold on. This could be fatal for his King of the Mountains hopes – Arensman is just 12 points behind him, and looks much more comfortable ahead of him in the group.
Roglič, meanwhile, is already ahead of Only in fourth on the virtual GC.
Gall is only a few seconds away from moving ahead of Vauquelin in 6th on the virtual GC.
It’s Armirail who’s setting the pace in the lead group, for his Decathlon teammate Gall. They’re 1:15 ahead of the peloton, with various poursuivants in between the two groups.
120KM TO GO
Politt is still in the peloton and leading it up the climb. The pace isn’t quick, though, and the lead group is over a minute ahead, while more attacks are coming out of the peloton.
Mechanical for Sivakov in the peloton. He could have an important role to play trying to keep a lid on things during what is already turning out to be a hard race to control for UAE.
The lead group has over 15 riders in it, and lead the peloton by 40 seconds.
Also in this group is Jorgenson, meaning Visma have a man up here for Vingegaard; and Arensman, who is a threat to Martinez’s polka-dot jersey.
More riders are attacking out of the peloton to try and join this lead group, including Jorgan Jeget, who is now in the top 10 on GC following Rodríguez’s abandon.
The group has now caught Wellens and Lutsenko.
There are about 10 riders in the Roglič group, including another GC threat Gall, who’s 7th overall; and the polka-dot jersey Lenny Martinez, on the hunt for more King of the Mountains points.
UAE are leading the peloton with Marc Soler. They’re chasing the Roglič group, which has a few other riders in it.
Up fron, Van Aert has been dropped by Wellens and Lutsenko. You’d have thought he would have the better of Wellens on a climb like this, but instead it’s advantage UAE over Visma.
Roglič is fifth on GC, 11:42 down on Pogačar, but only 2:39 off the podium.
He followed a move featuring Jorgenson, and has now attacked himself.
Very interesting move here, as Primož Roglič attacks!
It might only average 5.1%, but there are some steep inclines along the way of the 21.7km Col du Glandon.
Groves has now been dropped too, leacing just Van Aert, Lutsenko and Wellens in the lead group.
The chase group featuring Arensman has been caught, but O’Connor hasn’t given up yet, attacking out of it just before the catch was made.
The climb is already having an affect on the break – Rutsch has been dropped by the other four.
The front group is 30 seconds ahead of the chasers, and 42 seconds ahead of the peloton on the lower slopes of the Glandon.
130KM TO GO
Now they’re ‘climbing’ officially. The Glandon is the first of three huge mountains to be conquered today, all of them rated category hors.
COL DU GLANDON
The riders have not officially begun the first climb of the day, the Col du Glandon, but it will feel like they have. They’ve been travelling uphill for a few kilometres, with some steep gradients already. The stage-hunting climbers are making the most of it, by getting into the break.
In between, a chase group has formed featuring lots of quality climbers, including O’Connor, Arensman and Buitrago.
This group is looking good. They’re working together and lead the peloton by 30 seconds.
Van Aert, Rutsch, Groves and Lutsenko have joined Wellens.
Lutsenko has joined the chasing Van Aert group.
Mechanical for Girmay. If he’s in pain from yesterday, this could be a difficult day for him to finish within the time cut, but he looks in OK shape at the moment.
Van Aert has been joined by Rutsch and Groves.
Wout van Aert is back on the attack again. As a rider who could be so good in the valley between the two final climbs, it could be so important for Visma to get him up the road – especially if Vingegaard has plans for an attack on the penultimate climb, the Col de la Madeleine.
Wellens is still out there, and has grown his lead over the re-formed peloton by 20 seconds.
140KM TO GO
The two groups have come together again, due to the work done by Visma. They clearly weren’t happy with the make-up of that very large breakaway.
Riders keep firing off from the second peloton to the first peloton. The yellow jersey is towards the front of the latter, but seems happy with all the riders ahead of him – implying there can’t be any GC threats there.
There’s a small split in the peloton with about 40 riders going clear. It’s only a few seconds, but the two groups aren’t quite coming back together again.
Here are the updated points classifications. Pogačar didn’t roll through for any points, so is now 92 points behind:
Wellens leads the peloton by ten seconds.
They’ve been brought back, but Wellens has gone again and leads the road alone.
UAE had the move covered with Tim Wellens, and there are four other riders with them.
Here come the attacks! Visma are involved, with Wout van Aert instigating it.
Milan takes the points, with Girmay 2nd. Girmay didn’t really try to push the green jersey to beat him in the sprint, but must be in decent shape despite his crash.
INTERMEDIATE SPRINT
Teams are massing behind the Lidl line, but are the ones more interested in going to the inevitable attacks when it all kicks off after it, rather than the sprint itself.
2.5km away from the sprint, no team is challenging Lidl-Trek at the front for the lead-out. It may be that Milan is allowed to take the points uncontested, now he has such a big lead over Girmay and Merlier.
150KM TO GO
Still Lidl-Trek lead the peloton. There hasn’t been a single attack, making for an eerily subdued start to the day. That’s all set to change in less than 10km, when the race will explode into life.
Still no attacks, with the sprint 12km away.
160KM TO GO
Milan’s green jersey no longer looks under threat by any of the other sprinters. Biniam Girmay and Tim Merlier had been his main rivals, but both riders failed to score any points in yesterday’s finale after going down in the crash. Girmay looked especially hurt, though he’s still made it to the start today.
This sprint gives Jonathan Milan another chance to further strengthen his hold on the green jersey. The Italian now leads Pogačar by 72 points following his stage win yesterday, but there’s still some fear that the Slovenian could close that gap if he dominates in the final Alpine stages, and goes for the stage win in the hilly Paris circuit. A full haul of points in this intermediate sprint could therefore be crucial.
Still no attacks. It seems there’s a tacit agreement that no attacks will be made until after this intermediate sprint.
No attacks yet, as Lidl-Trek have taken over at the front of the peloton and are setting a pace. They must have their eye on the intermediate sprint, which is coming up 24km into the stage – and, crucially, before any of the climbs.
And they’re off!
OFFICIAL START
It’s impossible to escape the narrative for today’s stage – Tadej Pogačar’s return to the Col de la Loze, the mountain that broke him and ended his Tour hopes in 2023, in search of redemption as he hopes to strengthen his hold on the yellow jersey this year.
The riders are on the move in Vif for the unofficial start, for what’s going to be a long, horrible day in the saddle.
Here’s the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar at the start. He holds a healthy lead of 4:15 over Jonas Vingegaard, and that hasn’t looked threatened all week – but on a stage like today’s, and a climb like Col de la Loze, nothing is guaranteed.
The peloton is two riders down from yesterday – Cyril Barthe had abandoned, as well as Ineos’ GC leader Carlos Rodríguez. The Spaniard was beginning to look resurgent after a slow start to the Tour, and had climbed up the standings to 10th overall, but fell hard in a crash yesterday and fractured his pelvis.
Primož Roglič also spoke briefly as he signed on. Never a man for many words, the Red Bull leader seems focused on just surviving the day.
Jonas Vingegaard was quiet but perhaps determined when he signed on.
The finish of the Tour in Paris will be an emotional moment for Geraint Thomas.
Geraint Thomas just signed on in Vif and spoke briefly about the day ahead and his final days of racing at the Tour.
The Tour appears to ended any debate about which stage is the Queen stage.
It’s great to see Biniam Girmay smiling on the sign-on podium. He crashed yesterday and seemed to hurt his wrist but is ready to race on in the Tour.
There is always debate abut which stage is the ‘Queen stage’ of each Tour but today’s stage is special, super hard – to quote most riders, and ends on the highest point of this year’s race, the Col de la Loze at 2304m.
There is an hour to the start of the stage but the riders are already signing on in Vif.
Bonjour et bienvenue to Cyclingnews‘ live coverage of stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France !
