Stage 18

The road

At the start

First of three summit finishes

Philipsen has his stage at last and the green jersey gap is down to seven points, but the classification really open this morning is the mountains: Pogačar leads it by twenty-four points from Valentin Paret-Peintre, with Richard Carapaz six further back and free to ride. Thirteen teams still have nothing from this Tour. José Félix Parra does not start. Voiron climbs early, and ends at Orcières-Merlette.

How it was won

1. 172 km to go

   Six minutes and climbing

   Over the Côte des Terrasses the break's advantage swells to six minutes, Paret-Peintre accelerating once more to take the points ahead of Carapaz in his running battle for the polka dots.

2. 256 km to go

   Pedersen's finish line at Corps

   Piloted by Vacek all the way to the banner, Pedersen jumps for the intermediate sprint at Corps and takes 25 points — his green jersey lead over Philipsen back out to 32.

3. 347 km to go

   Jorgenson forces the selection

   Jorgenson attacks with 47km to go, taking Johannessen, García Pierna, Schmid and Engelhardt; Paret-Peintre and Carapaz chase across, and the six of them now have the stage to themselves.

4. 419 km to go

   García Pierna wobbles

   On the short ramp to Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes the Spaniard is the first to show a crack, dropping before the climb and clawing back before the summit, where Paret-Peintre helps himself to two more mountain points.

5. 54 km to go

   Carapaz goes for the second time

   Four kilometres out Paret-Peintre tests the water and Carapaz answers with a real attack, Schmid and Jorgenson scrambling across. Then, with 3.5km to climb, the Ecuadorian strikes again — and this time there is simply no response.

6. 6At the line

   Solo to Orcières-Merlette

   Twenty seconds by the 3km banner, and growing all the way to the ski station: Carapaz rides alone into the Alps' first summit finish for the 25th win of his career.

The result