Bonjour and welcome to the Cyclingnews live coverage of stage 18 of the 2023 Tour de France.
The riders are signing on in Moûtiers for the rolling 184km ride to Bourg-en-Bresse.
The sun is out for what should be a fast ride north out of the Alps.
The stage suits the sprinters but it'll be fascinating to see if they can control the breakaway attempts.
This is the profile of the stage.
(Image credit: ASO)
Tadej Pogacar has signed on and confirmed he is ready to race on.
"It was brutal,” he said of his suffering on the Col de la Loze.
“It was hard but I have to thank my team, they pushed me to finish, especially Marc Soler, he saved the podium for me. It was super hard but I’m still here, still standing so we keep fighting to the end.”
(Image credit: Marco BERTORELLO / AFP Getty Images)
We're five minutes from the roll out from Moûtiers.
The riders head to Albertville and then Chambery as they leave the Alps before heading northwest via the Ain region for the finish in Bourg-en-Bresse.
Vingegaard lines up on the front of the start grid in fresh yellow. He has lost teammate Wout Van Aert, who has headed home to be with his wife, who is about to give birth, but now leds Pogacar buy 7:35.
He has to stay safe, stay healthy and focus on riding to Paris on Sunday.
(Image credit: Thomas SAMSON / AFP Getty Images)
Wout Van Aert announced he would not start stage 18 of the Tour de France on Thursday and he has headed back to Belgium to be with his wife Sarah, who is due to give birth to their second child shortly.
In a video put out by the team on Twitter, Van Aert said: “As everyone knows Sarah is pregnant. In consultation with the team, we have decided that my place is at home. We have been seeing the doctor at home and he has assessed that labour is imminent.”
Bang on schedule, the riders roll out from the start.
They face a long 16.2km neutralised section before the flag drops and the stage officially starts.
Riders are usually packed tight behind the red race director's car but everyone seems tired today after the huge effort of stage 17.
Still 6km to ride in the neutralised sector.
The riders are enjoying this roll out but someone will surely attack.
Only nine of the 22 teams in the Tour de France have won a stage so there will be a big fight to make the breakaway and motivation to make it stick from teams who have missed out so far, in particular Soudal-Quickstep who lost sprinter Fabio Jakobsen to a crash on stage 12.
The sprinters' teams will likely take over the chase with the flat finale in the capital of the Ain department, where Jasper Philipsen will hope to take his fifth stage and add to his tally in the points classification.
Philipsen holds a massive lead of 137 points over Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and is unlikely to be overtaken unless disaster strikes before the final stage in Paris.
Jumbo-Visma will have to control the peloton in the first half of the stage but they will be happy for a break to go and help from the sprinters' teams.
After Vingegaard's triumphant two stages with a dominant time trial and even more commanding performance on the Col de la Loze he'll relish a quiet day of sitting in the peloton.
1.5km to the start reel. The riders are packed tight now, so we expected attacks.
Interestingly, Giulio Ciccone is up front. He will want to get into the break to score the few KOM points on offer on the two Cat 4 climbs.
He needs every point before Saturday's final mountain stage. Cicco has 88 points, Felix Gall has 82 and Vingegaard has 81.
(Image credit: David Ramos/Getty Images)
Allez! Christian Prudhomme waves the flag and we're off!
Asgreen is the first to surge clear. Two riders join him.
He is joined by Victor Campenaerts and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X).
They are going away as some in the peloton try to block the road.
The gap is up to 35 seconds.
Will anyone try to jump across?
Of course they will.
TotalEnergies try to spark a move.
The peloton have locked down the counter attacks.
The gap is up to 1:40.
The three up the road are Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny).
Jayco, DSM and Alpecin are ready to lead the peloton and so keep the break in check.
This was the moment Asgreen sparked the break.
Danish ITT Champion @k_asgreen is on the attack in the opening kilometers of this #TDF2023 stage. pic.twitter.com/4nLKF2Hk0HJuly 20, 2023
170km to go
The peloton has pegged the three attacks to 1:30.
It's 29C out on the road and so the Vittel moto comes up to feed the three riders in the break.
Their team cars have been sent up but the gap is dropping, so we could soon see sa change in the race scenario.
The pace is high but steady, the peloton is lined out but a lot of riders seem happy to stay in the slipstream after the fatigue of yesterday.
Danish ITT Champion @k_asgreen is on the attack in the opening kilometers of this #TDF2023 stage. pic.twitter.com/4nLKF2Hk0HJuly 20, 2023
The gap to the break continues to fall.
The three seem to have lost the desire to go on the attack.
The attackers are pushing big gears but their lead is down to 1:00 and so the team cars are pulled-out.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jasper Philipsen has beren back to his team car and seems calm and collected for the stage.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
155km to go
The riders are racing across the valley road on pan flat roads.
A few riders have stopped for natural break but the gap remains at 1:00.
The peloton is keeping the break on a short lease today.
The calm in the stage allows us to catch-up with the latest news and look back at the anarchy of stage 17. It truly was anarchy in the Alps.
150km to go
Wout Van Aert did not start stage 18 and headed back to Belgium to be with his wife Sarah, who is due to give birth to their second child shortly.
The news was confirmed by a Jumbo-Visma Tweet on Thursday morning prior to the largely flat stage from Moutiers to Bourg-en-Bresse.
In a video put out by the team on Twitter, Van Aert said: “As everyone knows Sarah is pregnant. In consultation with the team, we have decided that my place is at home. We have been seeing the doctor at home and he has assessed that labour is imminent.”
Van Aert is the first Jumbo-Visma rider to leave the Tour this year. He leaves the race at a point where leader Jonas Vingegaard is in a very strong position overall, dominating the race after the time trial stage and the Queen stage over the Col de la Loze.
A lot happened yesterday.
Pello Bilbao did not win the stage but was in the attack. However he was warned by the UCI commissaires after punching a spectator while racing up the Col de la Loze on stage 17.
The Bahrain Victorious rider was caught on camera hitting out at a fan with his right hand as he raced towards the summit of the Tour's highest peak along with Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).
A fan was running alongside Harper, just in front of Bilbao, as the breakaway trio battled their way up the final 3km of the HC-rated climb inside the final 10km of the stage, leaving the Basque rider with no space to move into. As he sought to move past Harper, he swiped out at the fan before racing on.
Australian broadcaster SBS zoomed in on the incident.
The crowds were out in force on the Col de la Loze and made for some wild moments on the final climb of Stage 17! #CouchPeloton #TDF2023 #SBSTDF pic.twitter.com/QXsRZ7o7xbJuly 20, 2023
140km to go
The break rolls on, 1:10 ahead of the peloton.
Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) are playing cat and mouse with each other.
Both groups are riding but also easing off, to save their legs. Yet the average speed for the first hour is 43.8km/h.
Behind, DSM, Jayco and are leading the chase.
Behind them the big GC teams are lined out behind in formation, protecting each other.
A sign of how controlled the stage is?
Race leader Jonas Vingegaard has time to wave to the camera and blow a kiss.
💛 Bonjour Monsieur le @MaillotjauneLCL #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/MhPIUg4Q3hJuly 20, 2023
130km to go
We can also see Tadej Pogacar in the peloton.
He has bandages on his right shin and right elbow after his fall yesterday. However he said it had little to do with his terrible day.
His podium position remains secure for now but the widening of the GC gap between himself and Jonas Vingegaard has gone from 10 seconds on Monday to a daunting 1:48 on Tuesday, then to a staggering 7:35 by Wednesday evening.
UAE and Pogačar were seemingly at a loss to explain what had gone so badly wrong on the Loze.
“I don’t know what happened,” Pogačar said afterwards.
“I tried to eat as much as possible but it was like nothing would go into my legs, everything stayed in my stomach. I was feeling so empty after three and a half hours. If I didn’t have such great support around me, I was thinking I could lose the podium today."
(Image credit: Thibault Camus / Pool Getty Images)
The echoes of Pogačar’s sudden loss of power on the Col du Granon in the 2022 Tour, which also cost him the race against Vingegaard, were unmistakable. But the Slovenian said what happened 12 months ago, when he lost just under three minutes to the Dane on the Granon rather than nearly double that on Wednesday at Courchevel, was far less serious.
“Even the stage to the Granon was better,” Pogačar said. “Today was one of the worst days of my life on the bike."
Click below to read the whole of Pogacar's reaction in a special story by Alasdair Fotheringham from France.
Back to today's stage, the break passes the summit of the Côte de Chambéry-le-Haut climb.
It's only 1.6km long at 4.3% but hurts Simon Geschke (Cofidis), who was suffering yesterday and finished just a few seconds inside the time cut.
Currently 1:05 between the three-man break and the peloton.
Abrahamsen led the break across the top of the climb – no impact on the polka dot jersey, obviously.
A point for the Norwegian at the top, his second KOM point of the Tour.
A look at the three men out front today.
(Image credit: Michael SteeleGetty Images)
dsm-firmenich, Jayco-AlUla, Alpecin-Deceuninck all lined up at the head of the peloton.
Simon Geschke reportedly back in the peloton now after dropping on that climb. He battling on through the Tour – hopefully he makes it Paris.
110km to go
The break losing some time as they head uphill on an unclassified climb. 50 seconds now.
A tight leash for the breakaway men – the sprint squads want to be certain of a bunch finish in Bourg-en-Bresse today.
There's a very long way to go so surely the peloton will let the gap go out a little more again. They don't want to make the catch a long way out and risk counter-attacks.
28km to go until the day's second and final climb, the fourth-category Côte de Boissieu.
Still all calm in the race as the riders edge towards the 100km to go mark.
100km to go
A 42kph average speed as the break passes the milestone.
The gap to the break steady at just under a minute currently.
No stresses for this man, race leader Jonas Vingegaard, today after a very intense couple of days of racing. His team not having to work, either, with no interest in a sprint.
(Image credit: Marco BERTORELLO / AFP)
Asgreen, Campenaerts, Abrahamsen continue on at 55 seconds up. It doesn't look like they'll get any more leeway as the Norwegian drops back to his team car for some refreshments.
80km to go
The riders climb the Côte de Boissieu, the second categorised climb of the stage.
Suddenly the race comes alive!
Two Lotto Dstny riders are trying to go across to the attack.
Now Anthony Turgis tries a move.
The Alpecin team is trying to control things for Philipsen but the speed is high and the climb is hurting lots of legs.
🇫🇷 #TDF2023With only 30" left for the breakaway, @PascalEenkhoorn tries to bridge to the front but lots of guys on his wheel 😒 pic.twitter.com/pCgvEWzLYUJuly 20, 2023
Kasper Asgreen (Soudal-QuickStep), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) are still clear at the summit.
Behind Philipsen tries to bully rival Pascal Eenkhoorn from attacking.
That's not nice or sporting from Philipsen.
I'm sure the VAR Video Assist Referee will look at that closely.
75km to go
The gap to the trio is 45 seconds but the attacks keep coming from the peloton.
Lotto are attacking again and again. They don't like the status quo.
Sadly Simon Geschke has abandoned the Tour due to sickness.
He suffered to finish inside the time zone yesterday and was struggling today despite the steady pace.
This is the Philipsen move on Eenkhoorn. Not nice.
Philipsen should be deducted 300 sprint points for that attempt at bullying #TDF2023 pic.twitter.com/OvkK0dXkBoJuly 20, 2023
65km to go
Eenkhoorn goes again. This time he's alone, so nobody can cut him up as he tries to go across to the break.
