As it happened: Breakaway success as Jonas Vingegaard fails to land blow on Tadej Pogačar during stage 18 of the Tour de France

Bonjour et bienvenue to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France !

There is an hour to the start of the stage but the riders are already signing on in Vif.

There is always debate abut which stage is the 'Queen stage' of each Tour but today's stage is special, super hard - to quote most riders, and ends on the highest point of this year's race, the Col de la Loze at 2304m.

As Alasdair Fotheringham wrote in his special preview feature "This is crunch time with a capital C in the 2025 Tour de France."

Click here to read the full stage 18 feature.

It's great to see Biniam Girmay smiling on the sign-on podium. He crashed yesterday and seemed to hurt his wrist but is ready to race on in the Tour.

The Tour appears to ended any debate about which stage is the Queen stage.

Geraint Thomas just signed on in Vif and spoke briefly about the day ahead and his final days of racing at the Tour.

"It's going to be a tough day, especially at this point in the race and with the bad weather too. Lets see what's in store," he said.

"It's nice," he said of his final days on the Tour as a rider.

"Its been tough but I've been trying to soak it up, enjoy the racing with the guys and I hope to enjoy Paris too."

The finish of the Tour in Paris will be an emotional moment for Geraint Thomas.

To reflect on one of the Welshman's Tour career, Cyclingnews spoke to people that know Thomas best to look on the last 18 years, and discuss his legacy.

Read what Steve Cummings, Rod Ellingworth, Simon Yates and more had to say about Thomas in this special feature celebrating his Tour career.

Click here to read to read the full feature.

Jonas Vingegaard was quiet but perhaps determined when he signed on.

Primož Roglič also spoke briefly as he signed on. Never a man for many words, the Red Bull leader seems focused on just surviving the day.

Roglič is fifth overall and could move up to fourth, while trying to help Florian Lipowitz defend hid third place overall.

"It's the Queen stage, so for sure a big fight to get to the finish," he said.

The peloton is two riders down from yesterday - Cyril Barthe had abandoned, as well as Ineos’ GC leader Carlos Rodríguez. The Spaniard was beginning to look resurgent after a slow start to the Tour, and had climbed up the standings to 10th overall, but fell hard in a crash yesterday and fractured his pelvis.

Carlos Rodriguez abandons the Tour de France

Here’s the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar at the start. He holds a healthy lead of 4:15 over Jonas Vingegaard, and that hasn’t looked threatened all week - but on a stage like today’s, and a climb like Col de la Loze, nothing is guaranteed.

The riders are on the move in Vif for the unofficial start, for what’s going to be a long, horrible day in the saddle.

It’s impossible to escape the narrative for today’s stage - Tadej Pogačar’s return to the Col de la Loze, the mountain that broke him and ended his Tour hopes in 2023, in search of redemption as he hopes to strengthen his hold on the yellow jersey this year.

His radio clip from that day, when he uttered the now-infamous words ‘I’m gone, I’m dead,” have been repeated over and over again, and do serve as a reminder that the Slovenian is human. But he’ll want us all to forget that potential vulnerability with another super-human performance on the mountain today, and at last exorcise those demons from the past.

And they're off!

OFFICIAL START

No attacks yet, as Lidl-Trek have taken over at the front of the peloton and are setting a pace. They must have their eye on the intermediate sprint, which is coming up 24km into the stage - and, crucially, before any of the climbs.

Still no attacks. It seems there’s a tacit agreement that no attacks will be made until after this intermediate sprint.

This sprint gives Jonathan Milan another chance to further strengthen his hold on the green jersey. The Italian now leads Pogačar by 72 points following his stage win yesterday, but there’s still some fear that the Slovenian could close that gap if he dominates in the final Alpine stages, and goes for the stage win in the hilly Paris circuit. A full haul of points in this intermediate sprint could therefore be crucial.

Milan’s green jersey no longer looks under threat by any of the other sprinters. Biniam Girmay and Tim Merlier had been his main rivals, but both riders failed to score any points in yesterday’s finale after going down in the crash. Girmay looked especially hurt, though he’s still made it to the start today.

Tour de France stage 17 final kilometre crash ends Tim Merlier's sprint hopes, leaves Biniam Girmay in pain

Still no attacks, with the sprint 12km away.

160KM TO GO

Still Lidl-Trek lead the peloton. There hasn’t been a single attack, making for an eerily subdued start to the day. That’s all set to change in less than 10km, when the race will explode into life.

2.5km away from the sprint, no team is challenging Lidl-Trek at the front for the lead-out. It may be that Milan is allowed to take the points uncontested, now he has such a big lead over Girmay and Merlier.

150KM TO GO

Teams are massing behind the Lidl line, but are the ones more interested in going to the inevitable attacks when it all kicks off after it, rather than the sprint itself.

Milan takes the points, with Girmay 2nd. Girmay didn't really try to push the green jersey to beat him in the sprint, but must be in decent shape despite his crash.

INTERMEDIATE SPRINT

Here come the attacks! Visma are involved, with Wout van Aert instigating it.

UAE had the move covered with Tim Wellens, and there are four other riders with them.

They've been brought back, but Wellens has gone again and leads the road alone.

Wellens leads the peloton by ten seconds.

Here are the updated points classifications. Pogačar didn’t roll through for any points, so is now 92 points behind:

1 Milan 332

2 Pogačar 240

3 Girmay 196

4 Merlier 156

5 Turgis 154

There's a small split in the peloton with about 40 riders going clear. It's only a few seconds, but the two groups aren't quite coming back together again.

Riders keep firing off from the second peloton to the first peloton. The yellow jersey is towards the front of the latter, but seems happy with all the riders ahead of him - implying there can’t be any GC threats there.

The two groups have come together again, due to the work done by Visma. They clearly weren’t happy with the make-up of that very large breakaway.

Wellens is still out there, and has grown his lead over the re-formed peloton by 20 seconds.

140KM TO GO

Wout van Aert is back on the attack again. As a rider who could be so good in the valley between the two final climbs, it could be so important for Visma to get him up the road - especially if Vingegaard has plans for an attack on the penultimate climb, the Col de la Madeleine.

Van Aert has been joined by Rutsch and Groves.

Mechanical for Girmay. If he’s in pain from yesterday, this could be a difficult day for him to finish within the time cut, but he looks in OK shape at the moment.

Lutsenko has joined the chasing Van Aert group.

Van Aert, Rutsch, Groves and Lutsenko have joined Wellens.

This group is looking good. They're working together and lead the peloton by 30 seconds.

In between, a chase group has formed featuring lots of quality climbers, including O’Connor, Arensman and Buitrago.

The riders have not officially begun the first climb of the day, the Col du Glandon, but it will feel like they have. They’ve been travelling uphill for a few kilometres, with some steep gradients already. The stage-hunting climbers are making the most of it, by getting into the break.

Now they're 'climbing' officially. The Glandon is the first of three huge mountains to be conquered today, all of them rated category hors.

COL DU GLANDON

The front group is 30 seconds ahead of the chasers, and 42 seconds ahead of the peloton on the lower slopes of the Glandon.

130KM TO GO

The climb is already having an affect on the break - Rutsch has been dropped by the other four.

The chase group featuring Arensman has been caught, but O'Connor hasn't given up yet, attacking out of it just before the catch was made.

Groves has now been dropped too, leacing just Van Aert, Lutsenko and Wellens in the lead group.

It might only average 5.1%, but there are some steep inclines along the way of the 21.7km Col du Glandon.

Very interesting move here, as Primož Roglič attacks!

He followed a move featuring Jorgenson, and has now attacked himself.

Roglič is fifth on GC, 11:42 down on Pogačar, but only 2:39 off the podium.

Up fron, Van Aert has been dropped by Wellens and Lutsenko. You'd have thought he would have the better of Wellens on a climb like this, but instead it's advantage UAE over Visma.

UAE are leading the peloton with Marc Soler. They're chasing the Roglič group, which has a few other riders in it.

There are about 10 riders in the Roglič group, including another GC threat Gall, who’s 7th overall; and the polka-dot jersey Lenny Martinez, on the hunt for more King of the Mountains points.

The group has now caught Wellens and Lutsenko.

More riders are attacking out of the peloton to try and join this lead group, including Jorgan Jeget, who is now in the top 10 on GC following Rodríguez’s abandon.

Also in this group is Jorgenson, meaning Visma have a man up here for Vingegaard; and Arensman, who is a threat to Martinez’s polka-dot jersey.

The lead group has over 15 riders in it, and lead the peloton by 40 seconds.

Mechanical for Sivakov in the peloton. He could have an important role to play trying to keep a lid on things during what is already turning out to be a hard race to control for UAE.

Politt is still in the peloton and leading it up the climb. The pace isn’t quick, though, and the lead group is over a minute ahead, while more attacks are coming out of the peloton.

It’s Armirail who’s setting the pace in the lead group, for his Decathlon teammate Gall. They’re 1:15 ahead of the peloton, with various poursuivants in between the two groups.

120KM TO GO

Gall is only a few seconds away from moving ahead of Vauquelin in 6th on the virtual GC.

Roglič, meanwhile, is already ahead of Only in fourth on the virtual GC.

Martinez is at the back of the lead group and struggling to hold on. This could be fatal for his King of the Mountains hopes - Arensman is just 12 points behind him, and looks much more comfortable ahead of him in the group.

Still Politt leads the peloton. UAE are well represented in the group, with Soler, Sivakov, Narváez and Adam Yates all present, and also have Wellens up the road.

Martinez is still just about hanging on, but he’s struggling. He’s out the saddle and keeps losing the wheel of the man in front of him.

Martinez is making use of a sticky bottle with his team car behind, and now he's back with the lead group. He's pushing the limits of what he can get away with with the commissaires!

Frank van den Broek is keen to get out of the 8-man chase group in between the leaders and the peloton, and has made a few attacks, but to no avail yet.

Armirail’s work has seen the leaders’ advantage over the peloton grow to almost two minutes, but Politt is keeping it pegged for now.

Martinez is still just about clinging on to the front group. He has just 2km left to climb until the summit.

Berthet has attacked from the chase group and gone clear.

Woods is being dropped out of the chase group. He's one of the men up there in the KOM classifications, who now looks like he won't be picking up any points at the summit.

Less than 1km to the summit. The break leads the chasers by 50 seconds, and the peloton by 1:50.

110KM TO GO

Wellens has had a mechanical. He's already nearly back in the lead group though - clearly the Belgian is feeling fresh.

Martinez is still in the lead group and ready to sprint for the KOM points.

Martinez takes the maimum points, taking the points ahead of Arensman.

KOM - COL DU GLANDON

UAE's Sivakov is out the back of the peloton as they near the top. Still it's Politt leads - amazing ride by the German, out-riding even one of his team's key climbing domestiques.

As Politt leads the peloton over the Glandon, there are still over 40 riders left in it.

A dodgy moment on the descent in the break, as Jorgenson and García Pierna nearly come together.

Leknessund is struggling on the descent, and has been dropped out of the lead group.

Here are the new KOM classifications. Martinez recovered by the top of the climb - albeit with the help of a sticky bottle - and now sees his hold on the polka-dot jersey strengthened:

1 Martinez 80

2 Arensman 63

3 Pogačar 60

4 Vingegaard 45

5 Woods 38

The lead group are descending quicker than the peloton. They've grown their lead to about 2:30.

100KM TO GO

Bad news now for Martinez though - he’s been dropped out of the front group on the descent. Given how much he was struggling on the last climb, he can ill afford to start the Col de la Madeleine with a deficit if he’s to take the points he needs to defy the challengers for his polka-dot jersey.

Mühlberger has crashed on the descent. He was back up and running straight away, but has some ground to make up to return to the front group.

The gap between the leaders and the peloton continues to grow as the near the bottom of the descent and the start of the Madeleine. It’s now up to 2:50.

90KM TO GO

Jorgenson and Arensman managed to distance the others on the descent, and now lead the race ahead of the rest of the break by about 30 seconds.

Jorgenson and Arensman start the climb, 35 seconds ahead of the chase group featuring Roglič and Gall, and a whole 3 minutes ahead of the peloton.

COL DE LA MADELEINE

Will Visma-Lease a Bike make a move on the Madeleine? Tadej Pogačar and his teammates will have braced themselves for the possibility of a Visma onslaught today potentially starting here.

'If Visma attack, that's OK' - UAE Team Emirates-XRG unfazed by prospect of Jonas Vingegaard launching assault on Tour de France yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar in Alps

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Many of those who were in the chase group have been caught by the peloton, including Jegat.

Martinez has also been caught, and dropped, by the peloton. He won't be getting any more KOM points today, while his rival Arensman currently leads the race with Jorgenson.

Unfortunate news about Enric Mas has come through - the Spaniard has abandoned the race. He was seen struggling earlier, dropping from the peloton early on the Gladon. A Tour that promised much when he led the race on Mont Ventou and looked poised for a stage victory has ended in disappointment.

DNF - ENRIC MAS

Behind Jorgenson and Arensman, who still lead the race by 22 seconds, the chase group is being pulled along by Armirail, with Gall on his wheel. Also present are Roglič, Wellens, O’Connor, Rubio and Baudin.

Wellens is beind distanced from the chase group. He put a lot into his effort to attack earlier today, and might now be paying for that effort.

The chase group is coming back to the two leaders, bringing them back to within 15 seconds.

Back in the peloton, Politt swings off, and Soler takes over the pace-setting.

Here comes Visma-Lease a Bike! They’ve taken over at the front and have upped the pace, with Van Aert leading.

Armirail has continued to drag the 6-man chase group up to Jorgenson and Arensman, and the catch has just been made.

This new lead group has a 2:50 advantage over the peloton. That means Roglič has now replaced his Red Bull teammate Lipowitz in virtual third-place.

80KM TO GO

Picnic-PostNL's Warren Barguil is dropped from the peloton. He’s a key helper for Onely, who is already under attack from Red Bull, and relying instead on Visma and UAE to chase.

Van Aert is done, having brought the leaders' advantage down to 2:40. Now Benoot takes over for Visma.

Bad news for French fans - Kévin Vauquelin is at the back of the peloton and struggling to hold on.

Vauquelin's dropped. His 6th place on GC is under serious threat, with such a long way still to ride.

The rider who is immediately behind Vauquelin on GC, Gall, is now leading the front group, his teammate Armirail having at last finished his long shift.

Campanaerts takes over from Benoot, the gap now 2:12. Visma are setting something up.

Ben Healy is the latest to be dropped out of the peloton. There's only about 20 riders left now.

Primož Roglič in the break, from earlier in the day. There's now just 6 riders with him in the front group.

Vauquelin is already 45 seconds behind the peloton.

Wellens has been brought back into the peloton. Even if he can’t hang about to offer Pogačar an assistance, the yellow jersey still has Yates and Narváez for support.

Vauquelin is digging deep, but still losing ground 1:25 behind the peloton. The Frenchman has managed to overtake Ben Healy, despite being dropped before him.

Campanaerts is finished, and now it’s Simon Yates’ turn.

Roglič is leading the front group, but the peloton is bearing down on them, now just 55 seconds behind.

In the peloton, Kuss takes over and has accelerated.

This is the move! Only Pogačar, Vingegaard and Lipowitz are still with Kuss.

There are still over 5km left until the summit. Will Vingegaard attack before then, or leave it to Kuss to set the pace?

Lipowitz is only just managing to stay with Kuss, Pogačar and Vingegaard.

Vingegard goes! But Pogačar follows.

VINGEGAARD ATTACKS

Pogačar has his mouth open, but not as wide as on the Ventoux.

That move was made 72km from the finish. Vigegaard is living up to his word and giving this a real go today, with lots of road still to come.

Vingegaard and the yellow jersey have already made it up to the front group. Jorgenson is here for Vingegaard, and is setting the pace.

This seems early for Vingegaard to have caught Jorgenson - surely he would have wanted his teammate for the valley road ahead, after the descent?

Lipowitz is already 30 seconds behind the lead group featuring the yellow jersey, Vingegaard, and his Red Bull teammate Roglič.

Onley is isolated, and having to lead a chase group that's 40 seconds behind Lipowitz all by himself.

Jorgenson still leads the front group, and is starting to drop riders - Arensman is being distanced, putting into peril his hopes for the polka-dot jersey.

Lipowitz is 35 seconds behind, Onley 1:15.

70KM TO GO

Jorgenson still leads with just 1km left to climb. It doesn't look like another attack is coming from Vingegaard on this climb - all it would likely achieve now is to drop his teammate.

Vingegaard comes through to ensure he gets the maximum points at the summit of the Madeleine, and Pogačar comes through for second. That's bad news for all of the climbers who were targeting the polka-dot jersey.

KOM - COL DE LA MADELEINE

Lipowitz reaches the top about 30 seconds beind the leaders. His third-place on GC is safe for now, but could come under threat from his teammate Roglič.

Now the Onley group, which also features Johannessen, reaches the top, just over 2 minutes behind the leaders. The Scott has already fallen to 5th on the virtual GC, and has 3:46 of a buffer on Gall, who is still in that lead group.

Here was Vingegaard attacking Pogačar on the Madeleine. He didn’t succeed in dropping him, but is looking up for the fight.

Lipowitz is losing ground on the descent, now 50 seconds behind the leaders. The Onley group is holding its own though, at 2:12.

60KM TO GO

Jorgenson is setting a fast pace on this descent. It' not an attack, but he's putting Pogačar (and the others) under pressure.

Here are the new KOM rankings. Pog is bearing down on Martinez.

1 Martinez 80

2 Pogačar 75

3 Arensman 65

4 Vingegaard 65

5 Woods 38

Lipowitz has now fallen to over a minute behind. He's having a hard time on this descent.

Lipowitz is regrouping and starting to make up ground again. He’s now 40 seconds behind the leaders, and will now have a companion as he’s just caught Arensman.

50KM TO GO

Since catching up to Arensman, Lipowitz's defecit has remained at about 40 seconds to the leaders.

Further behind, Onley is 2:55 behind, and Vauqulin is at 4:30. These are huge gaps already, and are only going to get bigger on the Col de la Loze.

Visma aren’t happy in the front group. Their two riders are trying to get other riders to hel the pace-setting.

O’Connor has taken advantage of the slowdown and attacked.

Jorgenson and Rubio have gone with O'Connor.

That trio already has 20 seconds on the others.

All this is good news for Lipowitz - he’s set to rejoin the yellow jersey group.

They have indeed caught them, and the pace remains completely off.

Gall is trying to attack now. All this is bad news for him, as he stood to rise on GC.

The leading trio are 45 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey group, with the Onley group 3 minutes down and the Vaquelin group at 4:30.

40KM TO GO

Jorgenson, O'Connor and Rubio have grown their lead to a minute. If it keeps growing at this rate, the stage win could come into play.

Gall is the rider who's doing the pace-setting in the chase group, but he doesn't look happy about it. This in an awkward part of the race to have to put your nose to the wind - it's a length valley section, leading to the start of the final climb.

Roglič is taking a turn at the front now, but it’s far from a committed one. The gap continues to grow, to 1:30.

Now Lipowitz attacks! He’s got a gap, too.

Nobody wants to take responsibity for chasing Lipowitz. This is a good move from the German.

Lipowitz is over 20 seconds up the road from the yellow jersey group, but still 1:20 behind the leaders.

There’s no chase at all for Lipowitz - he’s now over a minute ahead!

Jorgenson, O'Connor and Rubio lead Lipowitz by just over a minute, and the yellow jersey group by about 2:15. It's stalemate in the latter.

30KM TO GO

Gall keeps trying to attack out of the yellow jersey group, not able to go clear.

Further behind, Vauquelin is rallying. He’s now back to the Onley group, which is almost back to within 1:45 of the yellow jersey group.

Gall attacks again, but is again shut down, as Roglič closes it down - doing his Red Bull teammate Lipowitz a favour.

The leading trio have started the Col de la Loze - thought by many to be the hardest mountain of this whole Tour de France.

COL DE LA LOZE

It climbs at 6.5% for 26.4km, and with many fluctuations in that gradient, with some horrible gradients. It even broke Tadej Pogačar two years ago - who will be its victims this time?

Lipowitz starts the climb a minute behind the leaders, and with a head start of about 2:30 over the yellow jersey group.

The Onley / Vauquelin chase group has caught the yellow jersey group. We now have a peloton again!

So all the GC riders are together again, apart from Lipowitz, who’s almost three minutes ahead as Picnic-PostNL lead the peloton onto the mountain.

Lipowitz still has about 2 minutes to make up on Vingegaard to take him over in second on the virtual GC, and you imagine the gap will start coming down soon now they’re climbing.

The regrouping of the peloton means both Vingegaard and Pogačar have reinforcements - Kuss and Simon Yates for the former, Soler, Narváez and Adam Yates for the latter. Soler leads the peloton for now.

Jorgenson has been dropped by the other two leaders - perhaps he’s out of legs, or perhaps he’s sitting up to help Vingegaard.

There are just under 20 riders now in the peloton, still being led by Soler.

Soler is done, and Visma take over. They're going to try once again to break Tadej Pogačar.

Simon Yates is the Visma rider leading the peloton, with Kuss on his wheel, and Vingegaard on his.

Incidentally, Ben Healy is the only rider in the top ten not in the peloton, meaning his ninth place on GC is under threat from Jegat.

Lipowitz is the day's big winner as things stand, still over two minutes ahead of the peloton and with his podium place looking very secure.

Lipowitz isn’t making any inroads on Rubio and O’Connor, though, who are still 1:10 ahead. This duo can start dreaming of a stage win - notwithstanding a charge from Pogačar and Vingegaard later on this mountain.

Lipowitz has caught Jorgenson, and the American is sitting on his wheel.

Rubio and O'Connor lead Lipowitz by 1:15, and the yellow jersey group by 3:15.

20KM TO GO

There are 14 riders in the peloton, being led by Simon Yates.

Jegat is the 14th and last rider in the peloton, struggling to hang on.

Jegat has now been dropped.

O'Connor and Rubio, the two riders at the front of the race.

O’Connor and Rubio are extending their advantage over Lipowitz and Jorgenson. They’re 1:35 ahead of them, and 3:10 ahead of the peloton.

Lipowitz has dropped Jorgenson.

The scene from high up the Col de la Loze.

O'Connor has dropped Rubio with an acceleration - he's making a move for the stage win, just under 16km from the finish.

O'CONNOR ATTACKS

O'Connor has 15 seconds on Ruibo.

O'Connor is 20 seconds ahead of Rubio, 2 minutes ahead of Lipowitz, and 3 minutes ahead of the peloton.

15KM TO GO

Jorgenson has been brought back by the peloton, but has nothing left to give, and slips straight out of the back.

O'Connor's looking great. He's 40 seconds ahead of Rubio now, and over three minutes ahead of the peloton and growing. He's in with a shout for the stage win...

It remains Simon Yates leading the peloton. You suspect the pace will increase as soon as Sepp Kuss eventually takes over.

O'Connor, still at the front of the race, 50 seconds ahead of Rubio, 2:30 ahead of Lipowitz and 3:30 ahead of the peloton.

Yates has finished, but it's not Kuss who takes over - rather, it's UAE, with Jhonatan Narváez.

Narváez's pace is already thinning the group out, with Roglič dropped, along with Vauquelin.

The peloton is down to just Narváez, Adam Yates, Pogačar, Vingegaard, Kuss, Onley, Gall, Johannessen - and Roglič, who has just rejoined.

O'Connor is over a minute up on Rubio, and 2:55 ahead of Lipowitz. You sense the only people who can catch him now are Pogačar and Vingegaard, who remain in the peloton 3:20 behind.

10KM TO GO

Lipowitz is soon to be caught by the peloton. Having looked set to be the day's big winner, he might end up being the big loser if he's spat out of the peloton after the catch is made.

Lipowitz is caught.

Since falling out of GC contention early on, O'Connor has been trying over and over again to claim a stage win. Could this be the day he succeeds?

The weather’s taken a turn for the worse at the finish, where it’s grey and raining. It’s OK further down the mountain, where the riders currently are.

We’re still waiting for an attack in the yellow jersey group. Narváez is continuing to set a steady pace for teammate Tadej Pogačar.

The climb's just got a lot harder for O'Connor, who's arrived at the steep, narrower stretch of road 5km from the top. He's greeted by huge crowds.

Adam Yates takes over from Narváez, as the peloton near the steep sector.

Lipowitz is dropped.

Adam Yates has just 7 riders left on his wheel - Pogačar, Vingegaard, Onley, Roglič, Gall, Johannessen and Kuss.

Johannessen has been dropped.

As has Kuss.

Now Gall loses the wheel.

Gall claws his way back.

Lipowitz is 30 seconds behind. He only has a 2:01 advantage over Onley on GC - his podium place is in danger.

Roglič has now lost the wheel. What had looked set to be a great day for Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe is unravelling.

Roglič fights his way back to the group.

Further ahead, O'Connor is looking set for the stage win. With 2km to go, he leads the yellow jersey group by 2:50.

Both Roglič and Gall were again briefly dropped, but are hanging in there.

It’s surprising that Vingegaard hasn’t launched an attack yet. After all the work he did on the previous climb, we were anticipating an attempted killer blow on this mountain. Perhaps he doesn't have the legs?

Gall has now been dropped.

Here's the move, Vingegaard goes...but fails to drop Pogačar.

VINGEGAARD ATTACKS

In fact, even Onley has managed to follow Vingegaard.

O'Connor is nearing the finish - the stage win is to be his!

Vingegaard is trying to press on but struggling.

Ben O'Connor takes the victory, with a ride of great power, boldness and opportunism.

O'CONNOR WINS

Pogačar accelerates, and drops Onley...and now drops Vingegaard!

He’s caught and passed Rubio and is now 2nd on the road.

Pogačar finishes 2nd, 1:46 after O'Connor.

Vingegaard is third at 1:55, and Onley fourth at 1:59.

They both cruelly passed Rubio at the line, who must settle for 5th, then Gall arrives home for 6th.

Lipowitz still hasn't finished - his third place on GC is under threat.

Here’s Lipowitz, finishing at 3:38. He’ll hold off Onley for third overall, plus the white jersey, by about 20 seconds.

Vauquelin arrives home. He looks set to swap places with Gall on GC, who will leapfrog him into 6th.

After all the work from Visma-Lease a Bike during the stage, and all the talk from Vingegaard about wanting to attack the yellow jersey, it was a bit underwhelming to see the Dane put just one attack in on the final climb. He looked spent by the end, and told a post-stage interview that he does not believe he’s ever done a harder stage at the Tour.

Once again, Pogačar looked untouchable. While he isn’t in the insatiable mood he was earlier in the race, this time letting the break take the stage win and leaving it late to attack Vingegaard, he’s still increased his overall advantage on GC to 4:26.

This is O’Connor’s second Tour de France stage win following his success four years ago at Tignes. That was a huge solo victory of over five minutes, but, given the competition he was up against today, and the difficulty of that final climb, this might be an even greater feat.

After his annus mirabilis of 2024, O’Connor had endured a difficult start to this season - but that’s all forgotten now with such a major stage win.

While there ultimately wasn’t much action in the fight for first place today, there certainly was in the battle for third. Florian Lipowitz's ploy of attacking up the road early ultimately seemed to backfire, as he ran out of legs on the final climb and lost a packet of time.

Oscar Onley is, as a result, now just 22 seconds behind Lipowitz - as many seconds as Onley is years old. With another day in the mountains to come tomorrow, he’ll try to find a way to gain that time and take third-place.

When you consider the peril Onley was in earlier, after he was dropped and in a group well behind on the Madeleine, that’s some turnaround.

Here's our report of the stage today, where you can read a summary of what was an action-packed day - it seems an age ago since Primož Roglič attacked on the first climb.

Tour de France stage 18: Ben O'Connor sails up Col de la Loze for solo victory while Tadej Pogačar drops rivals with second at summit

Thanks for joining us today! That’s the Queen stage done with, but there’s plenty more climbing still to come - tomorrow’s stage remains in the Alps, and features another 4,550m all crammed into just 130km. We’ll be back with all the action from start, for what promises to be an intense day of racing, with plenty still to fight for and GC changes on the cards.