Key events
132km to go: We’re in a little bit of a holding pattern at the moment. The peloton have slightly closed the gap to around 43 seconds. Not a lot else to report. Some nice sunflowers out there.
Before the départ today, Matej Mohoric (one of our breakaway riders), explained that he think it will be more of a headwind (“or a head-cross”) rather than a crosswind. That should make things easier for the peloton.
For what it’s worth, Van Aert is second in the peloton (and seventh overall) to add to his tally. Here are the results.
Result of intermediate sprint at Auch (38.4km)
1. Quinn Simmons, 20 pts
2. Nils Politt, 17 pts
3. Taco van der Hoorn, 15 pts
4. Mikkel Honoré, 13 pts
5. Matej Mohoric, 11 pts
At 1’30’’
6. Jasper Philipsen, 10 pts
7. Wout van Aert, 9 pts
8. Chris Juul Jensen, 8 pts
9. Guillaume van Keirsbulck, 7 pts
10. Chris Hamilton, 6 pts
11. Philippe Gilbert, 5 pts
12. Mathieu Burgaudeau, 4 pts
13. Nathan van Hooydonck, 3 pts
14. Michael Storer, 2 pts
15. Jonas Vingegaard, 1 pt
Quinn Simmons wins the intermediate sprint, although with Wout van Aert comfortably leading the standings for the green jersey, nobody is particularly bothered about that today.
RACE RESUMES
Huge frustration for the riders, particularly the breakaway riders who won’t be able refuel from their team’s cars. Those riders in the peloton will indeed get their fluids and snacks. With the breakaway already back underway, the peloton once again give chase. On we go.
The breakaway will resume racing with the same time gap: 1min20secs. It’s unclear what the protests were for.
RACE SUSPENDED DUE TO PROTESTS
The commissaires stop the race.
Not sure what the curry houses are like in the Pyrenees, but Mads Pedersen, who won stage 13, will do his best to stagger through today and get himself to Paris.
#TDF2022 Mads Pedersen had a troubled night with some stomach issues. He will race today and try to recover before Sunday.
Apologies to those who just confirmed their fantasy teams.— Trek-Segafredo (@TrekSegafredo) July 22, 2022
The breakaway lead is now over a minute.
A surprise not to see more riders from the sprint teams in the breakaway, as it will likely be a sprint finish come the end of the stage. Would be nice to see Peter Sagan do something.
The riders have just left Castelnau-Magnoac. We join the race around 10km in, and there has been a five-strong breakaway. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious), Nils Politt (Bora–Hansgrohe), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Taco Van der Hoorn (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert) and Mikkel Honore (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) lead stage 19. They’ve got about a 50 second lead over the peloton.
Preamble
The race is probably run. Probably. Jonas Vingegaard put another minute and four seconds onto his lead at the top of the GC standings, now at 3min26secs, leaving Tadej Pogacar for dead on Thursday in the final mountain climb in the Pyrenees. With Saturday’s time trial and the final procession into Paris on Sunday, this is PROBABLY the final chance for any sort of miraculous late development in the battle for the yellow jersey.
Quick Guide
Tour de France: stage 18 result and GC
Show
Stage 18 result (Lourdes-Hautacam)
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den, Jumbo-Visma) 3h 59m 50s
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo, UAE Team-Emirates) +1:04
3. Wout van Aert (Bel, Jumbo-Visma) +2:10
4. Geraint Thomas (GB, Ineos Grenadiers) +2:54
5. David Gaudu (Fr, Groupama-FDJ) +2:58
6. Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz, Astana) +3:09
7. Daniel Martínez (Col, Ineos Grenadiers) st
8. Sepp Kuss (US, Jumbo-Visma) +3:27
9. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus, Bora-Hansgrohe) +4:04
10. Thibaut Pinot (Fr, Groupama-FDJ) +4:09
General classification
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 71h 53m 34s
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) +3m 26s
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos) +8m 0s
- David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +11m 5s
- Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) +13m 35s
- Louis Meintjes (Intermarché) +13m 43s
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +14m 10s
- Romain Bardet (DSM) +16m 11s
- Aleksey Lutsenko (Astana) +20m 9s
- Adam Yates (Ineos) +20m 17s
You can read about Thursday’s exploits right here. Today, the 188km track between Castelnau-Magnoac is a flat one, but not without some jeopardy. There are crosswinds “all day”, according to Geraint Thomas, who lies nicely in third. The terrain will be exposed and as the riders wind north from the mountains. Make no mistake, there will be nerves. This is not done yet. Probably.
