Tour de France Stage 18 included three long climbs and was a very hard stage overall for everyone, as Visma | Lease a Bike attempted to test Tadej Pogačar once again early in the race.
The pace was high throughout the day, with Col du Glandon being paced at 5.5 ᵉW/kg for 53 minutes including descents. On Col de la Madeleine, the pace was even higher, as Kevin Vauquelin was dropped early. With Sepp Kuss leading out, only Vingegaard and Pogačar could stay with the American, while Florian Lipowitz was the last to lose the wheel. Vingegaard attacked but could not drop the Slovenian, catching the breakaway and Matteo Jorgenson, who paced the group. Vingegaard and Pogačar climbed Madeleine in 54:38 with 6.02–6.03 ᵉW/kg. Lipowitz lost 30 seconds and did the exact same ᵉW/kg, as he was alone. The next group, with Onley, lost more than 2 minutes with around 5.80 ᵉW/kg.
Jan Ullrich’s 1998 Madeleine record was 52:44 with 6.47 ᵉW/kg. It was one of the most impressive long climbing performances and would not have been broken even if Vingegaard and Pogačar had gone full gas up the climb after Glandon, which was already taxing.
After Madeleine, no one wanted to pace and every major GC rider came back, with early breakaway riders Ben O’Connor, Einer Rubio, and Matteo Jorgenson attacking before Col de la Loze, as they were not dangerous in GC. Later, Florian Lipowitz attacked, trying to chase for the stage victory, which backfired as Picnic PostNL were pacing full gas for Onley, who had lost time on Madeleine but was much fresher than others who had pushed higher watts earlier. O’Connor soloed to his fourth Grand Tour victory, all of them coming from hard breakaways and long attacks. He did the highest performance on Col de la Loze with 5.53 ᵉW/kg for 69:22, as he did not draft as much as the GC riders.
As it was the easier side of Col de la Loze, Pogačar and Vingegaard could not get a significant gap, with Oscar Onley staying with the favourites, as he was more fresh, especially than Lipowitz, whose long-range attack for the stage win backfired. Lipowitz lost 1:39 min to Onley on Col de la Loze and is now only 22 seconds ahead of him in GC before the last mountain stage, with Primož Roglič not too far behind either. Pogačar was once again the fastest from the GC group but lost a mountain stage victory for the third time in a row to a breakaway winner in this Tour.
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