Stage 18

The road

At the start

Thirteen teams, one open stage left

Alejandro Valverde rode the last thirty-five kilometres of the Pyrenees alone to win at Peyragudes; behind him Wiggins and Froome dropped everybody else again, and Nibali is now 2:41 down. Today runs two hundred and twenty-two kilometres to Brive-la-Gaillarde and it is the last open road stage of this Tour. Thirteen teams have not won a thing. The first hour will be a war.

How it was won

1. 1156 km to go

   Sixteen, on the first climb

   Thirteen teams have not won a stage and there is one open day left, so the first hour is a war. Sixteen riders finally go on the first climb, Sky slipping Boasson Hagen in among them and the demoralised Cofidis and AG2R missing out.

2. 243 km to go

   Millar splits it

   Forty-three kilometres out David Millar attacks the break; Vinokourov is the only man to match him, then Albasini and Boasson Hagen react and the Norwegian presses on alone. He is closed down, and Vinokourov marshals the survivors out to nearly a minute forty.

3. 39 km to go

   Vinokourov's last Tour

   Nine kilometres left, twelve seconds in hand, and the Kazakh accelerates again, shouting at Hansen and Paolini to work. Behind them Klöden, Roche and Luis León Sánchez counter out of the bunch, and Sky, with Wiggins himself on the front, ride the whole thing down.

4. 4At the line

   Cavendish from two hundred metres

   Roche and Sánchez are still in front inside the last kilometre. Cavendish, without a lead-out for the third week running, simply comes out of the bunch with two hundred metres to go, rides past both of them and puts daylight into Goss and Sagan. There is an argument that not having a train has made him look better, not worse.

The result