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Tadej Pogacar hammered home his advantage in the overall race yesterday, on stage 17, while Remco Evenepoel snatched a few seconds back from second-placed Jonas Vingegaard. Truth is, though, the top of the GC looks firmly settled: Pogacar is 3min 11 sec in front of the Dane, Vingegaard, and 5min 09sec up on the Belgian Evenepoel.
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Which leaves us, realistically, to think about the battle for the points classification and the daily dust-up for stage wins. (Pogacar also leads the KOM classification by 19 points from Vingegaard.) Today’s 179.5km route between Gap and Barcelonnette ranks as “Hilly” on the official route map, with five category-three climbs to negotiate, along with one sprint point that comes after the first two climbs.
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Plenty of intrigue to be found in all the races within the race, then, and who knows, perhaps Pogacar may yet suffer a bad day …
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Neutralised stage stage: 12pm BST
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Important Events
150km remaining: Kwiatkowski, Poels, Carapaz and Skrzyns are part of another large group that has an advantage at the front, and according to TV timing they have a lead of 30 seconds.
151km remaining: “It would be great if Stuben could get away with it because the final is perfect for him,” said Steven de Jong (Riddle-Trek) from the team car.
151.5km remaining: Well, it didn’t last long. The break ended.
152km remaining: A breakaway group of 18 riders has formed, leading by 20 seconds. Hindley, Thomas, Van Aert, Maduas, Geschke, Skudziens, etc. are among them. Let’s see if it settles down, and then I’ll make a full list.
153km remaining: “I’m just going to cover the break and hope that he doesn’t get away,” Geraint “G” Thomas said before the start.
154km remaining: The race is now uphill and my average speed has dropped, but not by much: it’s now 27.7 mph.
155km remaining: The group had just come out of a road tunnel, no doubt a nice break from the heat.
155km remaining: “Today is the last chance for many people,” Ineos Grenadiers’ Christian Needs said before the start of the stage.
There are still 4 days left #TDF2024 However, Stage 18 will likely be the last day for a breakaway.Christian Explain the battle – the battle begins now!
📸: ASO/Billy Seusters pic.twitter.com/oxM4R8bLzS
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) July 18, 2024
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157km remaining: Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) and Jay Hindley (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) are both currently at the top of the standings, but the situation is fluid.
158km remaining: Stuyven has been caught, the pack is fragmenting, the roads are rough and, three weeks into the Tour, the riders’ legs are probably hurting badly.
158km remaining: It looks like the EF Education–EasyPost family had a great time celebrating Carapaz’s win last night.
A perfect evening with the family 💕
Now let’s get back to work.
📸: Jared & Ashley Gruber 💗#tdf2024 pic.twitter.com/M4qP89Pi6u
— EF Pro Cycling (@EFprocycling) July 18, 2024
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160km remaining: Stuyven’s gap is now down to 10 seconds and he’s close to being caught. The group is now at the bottom of the first climb. Could we see the elite group take the lead up the first climb, the Col du Festre?
163km remaining: Clement Russo (Groupama-FDJ) tried to get through to Stuyven but he gave up, which was probably a wise decision.
Commentator Rob Hatch says the track temperature is 38°C. Uncomfortably hot.
164km remaining: Stuyven now has 35 seconds to spare.
Yesterday’s winner, Richard Carapaz, riding for his EF Education Easypost teammate Rui Costa, stood out at the front of the pack. It’s hard to believe that Costa is now 37 years old and still racing.
167km remaining: Jasper Stuyven (Riddle Trek) took the lead on his own.
He has a 20 second lead and while the pack may have slowed down a bit, it’s a big effort to get away from a pack going at that pace.
Today’s average speed is 47.2km/h.
168km remaining: “We’re doing 70kph,” says Adam Bryce, who was riding for Eurosport.
“Tadej Pogacar is around 20th from the back of the pack and is totally relaxed.”
169km remaining: Moments earlier, a helicopter television camera captured two intrepid mountain bikers navigating a narrow path halfway up the cliffside.
“Well, it’s scary,” Kelly says.
He just tells it like it is, right?
170km remaining: The group is moving at 66km/h!!
However, it’s a bit downhill.
172km remaining: The five category 3 climbs today are: Col du Festre, Côte de Corps, Col de Manse, Côte de Saint-Apollinaire and Côte des Demoiselles-Coiffey.
There is now a downhill section leading to the Col du Festret, 3.9km long with an average gradient of 6.3%.
173km remaining: With an intermediate sprint coming up with 95.2km to go, could there be a decisive break of the day?
174km remaining: Ryan Gibbons (Riddle-Trek) breaks away from the pack and is quickly passed by four or five other riders.
174km remaining: We’re all in this together, and by we I mean the Tour de France riders. “The views are amazing, but the riders don’t get to see them very often,” Kelly says.
175km remaining: Ben Turner (INEOS) and Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) are the two riders who stand out at the front, but there is no breakaway yet.
176km remaining: “This is a really tough start,” Kelly noted.
Is it really that hard? I think so.
By the way, it’s extremely hot in France. The temperature advertised on the official website is 31.9°C.
177km remaining: Neilands (Israel Premier Tech) and Kun (Groupama-FDJ) broke away from the front, but it didn’t look like they were aiming for a breakaway together.
177.5km remaining: Kung, Cote, Neylands and Matthews have all been at the front along with van der Poel, but they have not been able to break away.
178km remaining: Perhaps unsurprisingly, this larger group, which includes MvDP, is on the verge of breaking up, with Wout van Aert actually leading the second group in an attempt to pull the group together again.
179km remaining: They attacked from the start, with Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) leading the way, as he knows a thing or two about long-distance breakaways.
Race in Stage 18!
Allright!
Passed KM0 But the flag has not yet been taken down.
“It’s going to be a real fight here“It’s definitely going to be a battle for a breakaway today. It’s going to be an important, interesting battle. When will that breakaway happen?” said commentator Sean Kelly.
“be interested “I’m here to see what they call a ‘hilly’ day,” Jeremy emailed, “the day that will probably see most people on their knees and a slight slowdown in their pace.”
Yes, I thought the exact same thing.
“Poggi? Bad day? Just laughing.”
Yes, I thought the exact same thing.
Magnus Court (Uno-X Mobility) and his “blue beard” started the day, and he vowed to dye his mustache blue if he reaches 200 million followers on Instagram. What a marketing masterpiece.
“Just think to yourself.” McEwen tells his “team,” “I can suffer as much as anybody else here.”
And that is exactly the stance I will be taking in today’s live blog.
Let’s get started! The riders are on the road, riding behind the race director’s car.
Robbie McEwen gives a slightly awkward ‘team briefing’ on Eurosport.
Essentially, today, everyone needs to ride a bike as fast as possible.
It’s time to read Jeremy Whittle’s report yesterday ahead of the neutral rollout scheduled for 12pm BST today:
preamble
Tadej Pogacar consolidated his lead in the overall race on yesterday’s 17th stage, while Remco Evenepoel managed to grab a few seconds off runner-up Jonas Wingegaard, but the overall lead actually looks decided – Pogacar now leads by 3 minutes 11 seconds over the Danish Wingegaard and 5 minutes 9 seconds over the Belgian Evenepoel.
That means realistic thinking about the battle for the points rankings and the daily struggle for stage wins (Pogacar also leads the KOM standings by 19 points over Vingegaard). Today’s 179.5km route between Gap and Barcelonette is classified as “hilly” on the official route map, with five category 3 climbs to be cleared and one sprint point after the first two climbs.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff in every race within a race, and maybe Pogačar will have another bad day…
Neutralised Stage: 12pm BST
