Tour de France 2025 Stage 18

July 24, 2025 There have been a number of exceptionally difficult stages this Tour but today is unequivocally the hardest. The Queen stage, between Vif and the Col de la Loze, runs 171KM over a mind-bending 5,600M of elevation. As difficult as the day is in terms of kilojoules required, the stage is relatively straightforward. After leaving Vif, the race heads up a false flat road, passed the village of Séchilienne, to Livet-et-Gavet for the intermediate sprint after 24KM of racing. The road continues to rise to Allemond for the start of the Col du Glandon, a climb of nearly 22KM at just over 5%. A long descent into Saint-Étienne-de-Cuines and La Chambre takes the riders right to the foot of the 19KM, 7.8% Col de la Madeleine. There is one final descent into La Léchère and a 15KM valley road before the behemoth Col de la Loze. From Brides-les-Bains, the road goes through Courchevel and up into the sky for over 26KM to 2,300M above sea level for the finish and the Souvenir Henri Desgrange. The climb averages just over 6% but there are ramps near the top of over 10% for a kilometer. This is a day for the real mountain goats. Before the start, Ineos confirmed that Carlos Rodríguez, who was sitting 10th overall, would not start due to a fracture in his pelvis sustained in a crash in the final kilometers of yesterday's stage. With the intermediate sprint coming so early, Lidl-Trek took control of the bunch when the flag dropped and showed their intent to keep the race together to give Jonathan Milan a chance at the points. Their execution was perfect and Milan put 20 more points in the bank for the Green Jersey. Attacking for the break began right away. Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG hung out front alone until Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike, Jonas Rutsch of Intermarché-Wanty, Alexey Lutsenko of Israel-Premier Tech, and Kaden Groves of Alpecin-Deceuninck joined him on top of the Lac du Verney dam wall in Allemond near the start of the Col du Glandon. Rutsch was dropped right away with Groves next to be distanced. The GC favorites started to move with Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe going up the road, followed by Felix Gall of Decathlon AG2R. Bruno Armirail was pacing Gall and the group increased to around 15 riders that included Ben O'Connor of Jayco AlUla and Mountains Jersey leader Lenny Martinez of Bahrain Victorious. They bridged up to the leaders with 15.5KM to climb and started to build their advantage to the UAE-XRG led peloton. With 5KM to climb, passed Le Lac de Grand Maison, the lead group had 1 minute on a chase group of seven riders containing 10th overall, Jordan Jegat of TotalEnergies with the peloton a further 1 minute behind. At the top, Martinez took maximum points ahead of Thymen Arensman of Ineos which was imperative for the Frenchman if wants any chance of taking the jersey to Paris. The Jegat group crested 50 seconds back with and the peloton still hovering around 2 minutes with 110KM to go. At the bottom of the descent, Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike and Arensman broke clear of the lead group and started the Col de la Madeleine at 85KM to go with 30 seconds on the Roglič group and 3 minutes on the favorites group which had absorbed the Jegat chase group. Armirail dragged Gall, Roglič, Alex Baudin of EF-Education EasyPost, Einer Rubio of Movistar, and O'Connor up to Arensman and Jorgenson to make eight leaders with 13.5KM to climb on La Madeleine. 3 minutes down the mountain, Visma-Lease a Bike took over from UAE-XRG and set a slightly higher pace. Kévin Vauquelin of Arkéa-B&B Hotels felt the pressure put on by Visma-Lease a Bike and dropped away from the group with 12KM still to ride to the top. Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost was next to falter and the group was reduced to less than 20 riders. With 6KM to climb, the gap from Roglič to the GC group was down to 1 minute. 500M later, Sepp Kuss of Visma-Lease a Bike put in an acceleration for Jonas Vingegaard that only the race leader, Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG, could follow. Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe clawed his way on but one kilometer later, Kuss pulled off and Vingegaard put in a dig to make it man on man with Pogačar. Pogačar and Vingegaard caught the lead group and Jorgenson immediately started setting the pace. The front of the race now consisted of Pogačar, Vingegaard, Jorgenson, Roglič, Arensman, O'Connor, Rubio, and Gall. Jorgenson paced the group to the top as Vingegaard summited first with Pogačar in second. Lipowitz was only 30 seconds back with a larger group containing Oscar Onley of Picnic-PostNL at 2 minutes. Jorgenson pushed the speed on the descent but everyone in the group made it down safely. When they reached the bottom with 42KM to go, Jorgenson went around to the other riders to recruit some help with the workload because there were still over 15KM of valley roads before the final climb. Meanwhile behind, Lipowitz was joined by Arensman at 45 seconds with the Onley group drifting out to 3 minutes. The speed went completely out of the front group and O'Connor attacked with Rubio and Jorgenson latched on. Lipowitz and Arensman made it up to the GC group and because there were no teammates present, the group slowed way down. Gall needed to keep the gap as high as possible on the Onley group so he worked a bit. Lipowitz was clever and attacked the group with 32.5KM to go through the town of Moûtiers. Gall tried to close it but Lipowitz was gone and the pace went out, almost to a stand-still, again. The three leaders started the Col de la Loze with 26.5KM to go with 1 minute on Lipowitz and over 3 minutes on the rest of the favorites. The Onley group came with a big rush on the favorites group and made the catch right at the bottom of the climb. In the group was also Vauquelin and teammates for both Vingegaard and Pogačar. Jorgenson was called back to to sit on Lipowitz and potentially wait for any future move from Vingegaard. He could not hold the wheel though and slipped back to the favorites group but was quickly dropped from that as well. With 17KM to go, O'Connor and Rubio had 1 minute 40 seconds on Lipowitz and still 3 minutes to the favorites group. O'Connor made a big attack just under 16KM to go and quickly put 10 seconds into Rubio. With around 11KM to go, Visma-Lease a Bike relinquished control to UAE-XRG. O'Connor had 1 minute on Rubio and 3 minute on Lipowitz who was about to get caught by the favorites group. The race remained in a holding pattern with O'Connor keeping a lead of 3 minutes on the GC group as he hit some of the steep ramps around 5.5KM to go, just passed the Altiport in Courchevel. Lipowitz paid for his aggression earlier on the climb and was distanced from the GC group with 5.5KM to go. 2KM later, Adam Yates of UAE-XRG lifted the pace and the group was reduced to just Pogačar, Vingegaard, Onley, Gall, and Roglič. At 2KM to go, O'Connor still held 2 minutes 50 seconds and the chase group was status-quo with Yates pulling but Gall was starting slip. Vingegaard broke the pattern and made an acceleration at 1,700M from the line but he didn't have the explosivity to make a gap and Pogačar and Onley were both able to hold his wheel. All of the action from the favorites was not enough to bring O'Connor back and the Australian crossed the line in the mist and fog to take a famous win in the Tour de France, the second of his career. Behind, Pogačar revved up his seated attack at 450M. Onley couldn't follow and just 100M later, Vingegaard dropped the wheel. Pogačar cruised passed Rubio to the finish for second place on the day with Vingegaard coming home in third 9 seconds later. Onley took fourth on the stage with Rubio behind in fifth. Even with all of the attacking and strategy employed on today's stage, the fight for the final podium place is as tight as ever. Pogačar leads by 4 minutes 26 seconds on Vingegaard with Lipowitz in third at 11 minutes 1 second. Onley had a great day, finishing fourth on the stage, and now sits just 22 seconds behind the German. Gall moved to sixth place over Vauquelin and O'Connor's splendid ride was good enough to put him into 10th overall with one big mountain day remaining.