Tour de France 2025 Stage 18 live: Stage 18 result and standings as Ben O’Connor seals victory on Courchevel Col de la Loze

The Frenchman has been docked eight points in the KOM classification for irregular feeding on the Col du Glandon.

TNT Sports has a chat with Geraint Thomas, who looks pretty relieved to be done with today. “It’s a long old last climb when you’re riding steady but got it done. I don’t feel too bad when I’m sort of 400 watts or less, anything over, not so good. Two more days then we’ve got Paris,” he says.

Carlos Rodriguez’s withdrawal from the race means that Ilan van Wilder is now the fifth-best young rider… at nearly two hours down.

But this still feels like a two-horse race, with Onley significantly closer than he was at the start of the day.

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) 67:06:43Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) +0’22”Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +5’14”Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) +14’40”Ilan van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) +1:49:09

Lenny Martinez’s bid for the KOM jersey took a hit today as he failed to hang on to take points over the second HC climb, and it looks like Pogacar may well wear it in Paris.

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 105 pts Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) 89 pts Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 80 pts Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) 65 pts Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla) 51 pts

The sprinters all made it home safely inside the time cut. Milan took another 20 points at the intermediate and has a little more wiggle room in the points classification.

Jonathan Milan (Lidl‑Trek) 332 pts Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 257 pts Biniam Girmay (Intermarché‑Wanty) 196 pts Jonas Vingegaard (Visma – Lease a Bike) 165 pts Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick‑Step) 156 pts

So Pogacar defends yellow, and exorcises his demons on Col de la Loze. He didn’t win the stage, but he withstood everything Visma threw at him, and ultimately pulled away from Vingegaard to land another psychological blow.

Lipowitz lost time while Onley gained time on the German, and Gall and Vauquelin swapped places, while O’Connor takes the place of Jordan Jegat in 10th overall.

Ben O’Connor continues: “The valley was the perfect opportunity to get time, you’re going to get smoked by Tadej and Jonas if you stay there, so it’s worth a shot. The final climb, just waited until the steepest part, and then it was all about pacing, typical time-trial stuff. It’s what I do best. It was nice to savour this one a little bit more than my last one [in 2021].”

Asked whether he was listening on the radio for the time gap to the yellow jersey group, he says, “That was the main gap I was looking for, once Rubiuo was gone, that’s all I cared about, I didn’t want to get rolled by the yellow jersey in those final 5ks.”

Tadej Pogacar conquered his demons on the Col de la Loze to stretch his advantage in yellow as Ben O’Connor secured his second career Tour de France stage victory, this time on the queen stage.

On the mountain where Pogacar famously cracked in 2023 as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to his second Tour crown, the Slovenian was the one gaining time two years later as a late dig at the summit saw him add 11 seconds to an overall lead that now stands at four minutes 26 seconds over his Danish rival.