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Tour de France
Tour de France
Tour de France
Tour de France Stage 18 LIVE – First summit finish in the Alps as Pogacar defends yellow jersey
Starts at 11:50
Tour de France

Stage 18 | Mountain

Mountain
Voiron → Orcières-Merlette / 185.2 km
11:50
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Live Commentary
11:43
Sun
RIDERS IN THE NEUTRAL ZONE, MECHANICAL FOR SEIXAS
The peloton is currently rolling through Voiron at the start of the 10km long neutral zone ahead of the official start of Stage 18. The sun is out and it’s a pleasant 24 degrees Celsius currently. Paul Seixas has a mechanical issue, it seems, and has slowed up to get some assistance from his Decathlon CMA CGA car.
11:41
Quote
POGACAR UPBEAT DESPITE ILLNESS CONCERNS AT UAE
The world champion and four-time Tour winner also brought up his second place behind compatriot Primoz Roglic in Orcieres-Merlette six years ago in his debut Tour.
Nice stage, nice memory from six years ago. Let’s enjoy today and try to save some energy for tomorrow and the next day. It’s hard knowing someone is sick in the team. But yesterday Adam [Yates] was already better than he was in the TT and I believe that tomorrow and Saturday he can be good again. He’s still eating separately in his room with room service. I think it’s easier to catch a disease from fans spitting on us while they cheer on the side of the road than inside the team bubble.
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Image credit: Getty Images

11:34
Quote
REMCO EVENEPOEL TO DEFEND, NOT ATTACK
The Belgian is 4’32” down on Tadej Pogacar in the general classification and although today’s final climb suits his characteristics to a tee, he says that he will defend as opposed to attack – with those two stages to Alpe d’Huez still on the horizon.
Evenepoel described this final Alpine chapter as ”the hardest end that we probably ever had to the Tour”.
11:28
Injury
ET TU, BRANDON?
The latest from the UAE camp is that Adam Yates is feeling much better but Brandon McNulty is now under the weather with a sore throat. There have been concerns with Tim Wellens as well – the Belgian dropped back and finished yesterday’s stage alongside Yates.
It's been a tough few days for McNulty, who was also knocked off his TT bike by a hit-and-run driver ahead of Tuesday's time trial.
With question marks over Yates and McNulty, a lot will fall on the shoulders of Felix Grossschartner today. The Austrian will have to bury himself for his leaders Pogacar and Isaac del Toro. It will be fascinating to see how they play it – and how their rival teams react.
Will UAE let the right breakaway go and just try to get through the day ahead of the Alpe d’Huez double header? Will Red Bull and Decathlon try to put them under pressure? The risk is that they do too much today and then pay for it tomorrow – and the next day…
11:05
Statistics
WHAT’S ON THE MENU FOR DAY 1 IN THE ALPS?
Before back-to-back finishes on the mythical Alpe d’Huez the riders will tackle a summit finish at Orcieres-Merlette, the big-ring climb where Luis Ocana beat Eddy Merckx in 1971 and where Primoz Roglic took the spoils in Stage 4 back in 2020.
We have five categorised climbs punctuating a 175km stage that features the best part of 4,000 metres of climbing.
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Image credit: ASO

After a flat opening 25km the riders arrive at the foot of the Cat.1 Cote d’Engins (11.4km at 5.4%). The road continues uphill after the summit ahead of a fast descent, a little hill, and then the false flat valley road towards the Cat.2 Cote de Monteynard (9.7km at 5%).
This second climb takes the riders up onto a rolling plateau where they’ll stay until the foot of the final climb. The Cat.3 Cote des Terrasses (3.4km at 6.6%) features before the intermediate sprint at Corps, which comes after 129km. With so much at stake in the green jersey battle, it will be interesting to see if either Pedersen or Philipsen try to infiltrate the day’s break to pick up points here.
The Cat.3 Cote de Saint-Leger-les-Melezes (2.5km at 6.9%) offers one final test ahead of the final Cat.1 ascent to the finish at Orcieres-Merlette, which is 7.1km at 6.7%.
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