The Australian Ben O’Connor won the 18th stage of the Tour de France, a 171.5km mountain trek between Vif and the Col de la Loze. Tadej Pogacar finished second, 1min 45sec behind O’Connor, and retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey, stretching his advantage over his chief rivalm Jonas Vingegaard, who came up third, by 11 seconds to 4:26.
Pogacar had suffered a big scare before the start of Thursday’s stage when he bumped into the Visma-Lease a Bike car of Vingegaard. “We were going to the start line and the cars were also going … we were cruising behind the car, maybe a bit too close and he suddenly … maybe I don’t know if he wanted to brake check me, to check my brakes,” the Slovenian Pogacar said with a smile.
Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogacar overcame an early scare to emerge with a bigger lead by stage’s end. Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP
Jeremy Whittle’s report will follow shortly