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The chase group is coming back to the two leaders, bringing them back to within 15 seconds.
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.
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.
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
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.
Many of those who were in the chase group have been caught by the peloton, including Jegat.
How to watch stage 18 of the Tour de France
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.
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
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.
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
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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.
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.
The lead group are descending quicker than the peloton. They’ve grown their lead to about 2:30.
100KM TO GO
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:
Leknessund is struggling on the descent, and has been dropped out of the lead group.
A dodgy moment on the descent in the break, as Jorgenson and García Pierna nearly come together.
As Politt leads the peloton over the Glandon, there are still over 40 riders left in it.
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.
Martinez takes the maimum points, taking the points ahead of Arensman.
KOM – COL DU GLANDON
Martinez is still in the lead group and ready to sprint for the KOM points.
Wellens has had a mechanical. He’s already nearly back in the lead group though – clearly the Belgian is feeling fresh.
Less than 1km to the summit. The break leads the chasers by 50 seconds, and the peloton by 1:50.
110KM TO GO
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.
Berthet has attacked from the chase group and gone clear.
Martinez is still just about clinging on to the front group. He has just 2km left to climb until the summit.
Armirail’s work has seen the leaders’ advantage over the peloton grow to almost two minutes, but Politt is keeping it pegged for now.
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.
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!
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.
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 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.
Roglič, meanwhile, is already ahead of Only in fourth on the virtual GC.
Gall is only a few seconds away from moving ahead of Vauquelin in 6th on the virtual GC.
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
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.
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.
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The lead group has over 15 riders in it, and lead the peloton by 40 seconds.
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.
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.
The group has now caught Wellens and Lutsenko.
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.
UAE are leading the peloton with Marc Soler. They’re chasing the Roglič group, which has a few other riders in it.
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.
Roglič is fifth on GC, 11:42 down on Pogačar, but only 2:39 off the podium.
He followed a move featuring Jorgenson, and has now attacked himself.
Very interesting move here, as Primož Roglič attacks!
It might only average 5.1%, but there are some steep inclines along the way of the 21.7km Col du Glandon.
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Groves has now been dropped too, leacing just Van Aert, Lutsenko and Wellens in the lead group.
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.
The climb is already having an affect on the break – Rutsch has been dropped by the other four.
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
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 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.
In between, a chase group has formed featuring lots of quality climbers, including O’Connor, Arensman and Buitrago.
This group is looking good. They’re working together and lead the peloton by 30 seconds.
Van Aert, Rutsch, Groves and Lutsenko have joined Wellens.
Lutsenko has joined the chasing Van Aert group.
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.
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Van Aert has been joined by Rutsch and Groves.
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.
Wellens is still out there, and has grown his lead over the re-formed peloton by 20 seconds.
140KM TO GO
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.
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.
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.
Here are the updated points classifications. Pogačar didn’t roll through for any points, so is now 92 points behind:
Wellens leads the peloton by ten seconds.
They’ve been brought back, but Wellens has gone again and leads the road alone.
UAE had the move covered with Tim Wellens, and there are four other riders with them.
Here come the attacks! Visma are involved, with Wout van Aert instigating it.
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
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.
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
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.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Still no attacks, with the sprint 12km away.
160KM TO GO
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.
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.
Still no attacks. It seems there’s a tacit agreement that no attacks will be made until after this intermediate sprint.
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.
And they’re off!
OFFICIAL START
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.
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.
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.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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.
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.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Jonas Vingegaard was quiet but perhaps determined when he signed on.
The finish of the Tour in Paris will be an emotional moment for Geraint Thomas.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Geraint Thomas just signed on in Vif and spoke briefly about the day ahead and his final days of racing at the Tour.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Tour appears to ended any debate about which stage is the Queen stage.
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.
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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.
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There is an hour to the start of the stage but the riders are already signing on in Vif.
Bonjour et bienvenue to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of stage 18 of the 2025 Tour de France !