Key events
The breakaway lead is now over a minute.
A surprise not to see more riders from the sprint teams in the breakaway, as it will likely be a sprint finish come the end of the stage. Would be nice to see Peter Sagan do something.
The riders have just left Castelnau-Magnoac. We join the race around 10km in, and there has been a five-strong breakaway. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious), Nils Politt (Bora–Hansgrohe), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Taco Van der Hoorn (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) and Mikkel Honore (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) lead stage 19. They’ve got about a 50 second lead over the peloton.
Preamble
The race is probably run. Probably. Jonas Vingegaard put another minute and four seconds onto his lead at the top of the GC standings, now at 3min26secs, leaving Tadej Pogacar for dead on Thursday in the final mountain climb in the Pyrenees. With Saturday’s time trial and the final procession into Paris on Sunday, this is PROBABLY the final chance for any sort of miraculous late development in the battle for the yellow jersey.
Quick Guide
Tour de France: stage 18 result and GC
Show
Stage 18 result (Lourdes-Hautacam)
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den, Jumbo-Visma) 3h 59m 50s
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo, UAE Team-Emirates) +1:04
3. Wout van Aert (Bel, Jumbo-Visma) +2:10
4. Geraint Thomas (GB, Ineos Grenadiers) +2:54
5. David Gaudu (Fr, Groupama-FDJ) +2:58
6. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz, Astana) +3:09
7. Daniel Martínez (Col, Ineos Grenadiers) st
8. Sepp Kuss (US, Jumbo-Visma) +3:27
9. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus, Bora-Hansgrohe) +4:04
10. Thibaut Pinot (Fr, Groupama-FDJ) +4:09
General classification
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 71h 53m 34s
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) +3m 26s
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos) +8m 0s
- David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +11m 5s
- Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) +13m 35s
- Louis Meintjes (Intermarché) +13m 43s
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +14m 10s
- Romain Bardet (DSM) +16m 11s
- Aleksey Lutsenko (Astana) +20m 9s
- Adam Yates (Ineos) +20m 17s
You can read about Thursday’s exploits right here. Today, the 188km track between Castelnau-Magnoac is a flat one, but not without some jeopardy. There are crosswinds “all day”, according to Geraint Thomas, who lies nicely in third. The terrain will be exposed and as the riders wind north from the mountains. Make no mistake, there will be nerves. This is not done yet. Probably.