Tour de France stage 18 Live - Vingegaard distances Pogacar to set up overall victory

Bonjour and welcome to the Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 18 of the 2022 Tour de France.

As we get up to speed, the riders are signing on in Lourdes, ready for this final mountain stage of the 2022 Tour de France.

It's a huge final day in the Pyrenees and so much could happen on the three big climbs of the stage. 

As always, we'll have full live coverage of all the action.

Sadly two more riders are out of the Tour due to COVID-19. Movistar team announced that their road captain Imanol Erviti tested positive for the virus this morning. 

Damiano Caruso also headed home after struggling in the Pyrenees, with Bahrain Victorious revealing he was also positive for COVID-19.

Erviti is the first Movistar rider to catch COVID-19 during the 2022 Tour de France. It is only the second time in his long career as a domestique and road captain that he has failed to finish a Grand Tour. He has started 28 Grand Tours and only failed to finish the 2012 Tour de France. 

It is the first time Caruso has abandoned a Grand Tour after completing 15 three-week races.

Ineos is next on stage. They still have a full team of eight riders despite some illness. 

They again wear yellow helmets during the stage as leaders of the team classification.

Groupama-FDJ are on stage next. They will be hoping that David Gaudu can keep fighting for a top-five place overall. 

Nairo Quintana is only 4 seconds ahead of him in fourth and so the two will be locked in their own race on the climb to Hautacam.

This is today's stage. It includes the mighty Aubisque, the Col de Spandelles and then the finish at Hautacam. 

We're 15 minutes from the start of the stage.

Jonas Vingegaard is on stage with his Jumbo-Visma teammates. The Dane is eating a ice lolly to try to stay cool.  

It's currently 28C in Lourdes but cooler at the Hautacam finish, which was above the clouds earlier this morning.   

The sign-on podium is in the centre of Lourdes and several riders will be looking for a miracle today.

They include Tadej Pogacar, who is on stage now.

It's going to be tough but i'm going to give my all," Pogacar says when it is pointed out today is his last chance to pull back time on Vingegaard. 

After losing Rafa Majka before Thursday's stage, Pogacar has just three teammates: 

Marc Hirschi, Mikkel Bjerg and Brandon McNulty. 

The riders are starting to line-up for the roll out. 

It's time for the pre-tace fist-pumps.

C'est Parti! 

The riders roll out of Lourdes. 

The riders face a short 3.1km neutralised sector. 

140 riders start the stage. 

Also missing is Chris Froome, who announced he has COVID-19 just before the roll out.

The flag drops the stage starts! 

The road climbs straight away and there are attacks.

Froome published a brief message, expressing his disappointment but saying he plans to ride the Vuelta a Espana.

Another fast start and another Wout van Aert attack! 

He was joined by Neilson Powless but is now solo. 

Riders are chasing van Aert to try to form the break of the day.

Van Aert is still 10 seconds ahead of the chasers. Jumbo clearly want him up the road to help Vingegaard later in the mountains.

The intermediate sprint comes after 58km of valley roads and so van Aert can score more points but he has already secured victory.  

Politt and Teuns are chasing, but so is Tiesj Benoot, also of Jumbo-Visma. 

130km to go

Jumbo seem to want to give it back to UAE. 

Their attacks have put Mikkel Bjerg in difficulty.

After a 13km attack, van Aert is caught. 

Who is next to go?

We have more attacks. 

Van Aert goes again! 

Is he attacking to hurt UAE and Bjerg? 

125km to go

Stan Dewulf of AG2R is up front but is marked by Christophe Laporte and others.  

120km to go

The speed is super high from the very start. The average speed is over 50km/h. 

The race is fluid and ever changing. 

EF are especially aggressive today and in a small group off the front with Laporte.

Laporte, De Wulf, Leknessund, Vermeersch, Bissegger and Matthews are on the attack. 

Schachmann and Van Poppel are trying to go across but it's a big task.

The gap is only 10 seconds. 

Cofidis are lead the chase to try to keep Geschke in contention for the KOM points on the first big climb. 

He needs to score some points in the hope of keeping the polka-dot jersey all the way to Paris.

Gruppo compatto after 33km fast racing.

110km to go

Teams and riders know that this is their last chance to win a stage.

Bjerg is still chasing in the team cars. He's suffering but slowly getting back to the peloton. But how much will the chase cost him?  

This tweet and photo from Bora says it all.  

The pace is so high the police motorbikes are being caught in the action.

Now we have a new attack of 15 riders.

Geschke is trying to go across again. 

Ciccone is also in the attack and is a rival to Geschke. 

Bettiol is there too, plus Benoot for Jumbo.  

The USA's Matteo Jorgenson is up front too. 

Geschke did not make it across and there are more attacks. 

100km to go

A group is closing down the attack. 

The peloton seems to be easing up.

There are 27 rider in the front group. 

They lead by 35 seconds but Geschke and van Aert are still trying to inspire the peloton to chase.

Benoot ups the pace as van Aert drags a small group across to them. 

One day we'll know just how much van Aert was riding for himself and how much for the Jumbo team. 

Van Aert wants to join the group to take the Laruns intermediate sprint in 10km or so.

Perhaps he wants to set a new green jersey points total in Paris.

No! 

A squeeze in the road ends with Jack Bauer (BikeExchange - Jayco) crashing into a team car. 

Fortunately he had slowed somewhat but he still hit the UAE car.  

Team DSM ride Nils Eekhoff also crashed just ahead, sparking the slam on.  

90km to go<