Stage 18

The road

At the start

A mountain time trial, and Cancellara stops

Fabian Cancellara does not sign on this morning: his last Tour de France ends here, and Shane Archbold does not start either. Chris Froome leads Bauke Mollema by 2:27, Adam Yates by 2:53 and Nairo Quintana by 3:27, and today is the first mountain time trial the Tour has held since Alpe d'Huez in 2004 — seventeen kilometres from Sallanches over the Côte de Domancy, the climb that made Hinault a world champion.

How it was won

1. 113 km to go

   Four flat kilometres, then Domancy

   The first mountain time trial at the Tour since Alpe d'Huez in 2004 opens with a gentle run out of Sallanches before pitching up the Côte de Domancy — the climb that made Hinault a world champion.

2. 29 km to go

   Porte's road-bike gamble

   Richie Porte has chosen a road bike over a time trial machine and it looks inspired: 11:33 at the top of Domancy, nine seconds up on Dumoulin, and the first 'wow' of the afternoon.

3. 34 km to go

   Froome finds his rhythm

   Twenty-two seconds down on Dumoulin at the first check, Froome is only ten adrift at the second. Porte's speed has drained away; Quintana is already more than a minute back and struggling.

4. 4At the line

   Froome wins the mountain TT

   Off the technical descent into Megève the yellow jersey stops the clock at 30:43, 21 seconds faster than Dumoulin and 33 up on Aru. A third stage win, and the Tour is now a formality.

The result