Tour de France 2024 Stage 18

July 18, 2024 It should be another day for the break away with five Category 3 climbs on rolling roads along 180KM from Gap to Barcelonnette. Attacks went from the flag but it was all over at 150KM to go when a group of 37 riders went away with 1.5KM to the top of the Col du Festre. UAE controlled the peloton, starting to ride when the gap got to 4 minutes. The first disruptions from the break came at the foot of the Côte de Saint-Apollinaire with 65KM to go. Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost attacked and pulled away a few riders but they were caught 1KM later. Hostilities continued up the climb but no one was able to get away. Michał Kwiatkowski of Ineos attacked just before the top of Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées, the final climb, with 39KM to go and was solo with the majority of the original break chasing. Kwiatkowski was joined by Victor Campenaerts of Lotto-Dstny and Mattéo Vercher of TotalEnergies on the descent at 35KM to go. Five chasers got out of the larger group including Oier Lazkano of Movistar, Jai Hindley of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Toms Skujiņš of Lidl-Trek, Krists Neilands of Israel-Premier Tech, and Bart Lemmen of Visma-Lease a Bike but they got stuck in between the leaders and the main chase. They got within 10 seconds but their cooperation broke down and started to cede time. With 15KM to go, the leaders had 50 seconds on the five chasers and 1 minute 15 seconds on the larger break and it was becoming clear that the leading trio would fight for the stage win. All three took their pulls, no one skipped turns until 900M to go when Campenaerts did not come through. Vercher put in an attack but Kwiatkowski drew him back. Kwiatkowski stayed on the front and kept a pace that would dictate a sprint. He kept his line right on barriers to make sure he could see exactly when a move would start but it didn't happen until 200M to go. They all seemed to start their sprint at the same time. Campenaerts came around the outside, passed Vercher then Kwiatkowski. Kwiatkowski tried to hold him off but Campenaerts was too strong. Campenaerts came across the line with a bike length gap for his first Tour stage win. Vercher kept his sprint going and came around Kwiatkowski for second place with Kwiatkowski in third. For once, there was no action in the GC group. The bunch rolled in over 13 minutes down, starting their recovery for a big day in the Alps tomorrow.