The UAE Team Emirates–XRG leader didn’t win any of the stages, but he beat Visma–Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard to the finish line in both and added to what always looked like an insurmountable advantage. He now leads Vingegaard in the GC by 4:26, with Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) in third at 11:01.
But first things first. The stages in the Alps promised high drama and explosive action. But while Tuesday’s stage 16 kept its promise, and then some, Thursday’s stage 18, which began with excitement, ended in a disappointing anti-climax thanks to the Visma’s questionable tactics.
Mano a mano on the Ventoux
To begin with, the crowd-pleaser. Stage 16 had only a single climb in it, but it was to the summit of the daunting “bald mountain”, Mont Ventoux (15.7 km @ 8.8%, though the climbing actually begins 21 km from the summit). Ventoux is often considered to be separate from the Alps, due to the lack of mountains of a similar height nearby, but is, in fact geologically part of the mountain range. With 90 km left to ride in the 171.5 km course from Montpellier to the “bald mountain”, a breakaway group of 36 riders had formed that included the heroes of the exciting finish, Ben Healy (EF Education–EasyPost) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step).
Large breakaways inevitably fracture as the better riders accelerate to rid themselves of competition, and this was also the case with this group. With 27 km left to ride, the group had been reduced to a six-rider lead group, with Healy and Paret-Peintre in a pursuing group. The first to attack from the lead group with 18 km left to ride was Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro), as the pursuing group gradually narrowed the gap when the road began to rise. But the Frenchman was passed by an ambitious Enric Mas (Movistar), who took off on his own 4 km farther on, while down the mountain, Vingegaard attacked four times, but was easily countered by Pogačar.
In the meantime, Healy and Paret-Peintre were gaining ground on Mas and caught him 3.4 km from the finish. Then there were two mano a mano battles taking place on the slopes of Mont Ventoux, that between the two yellow jersey rivals and between Healy and Paret-Peintre, who were racing for a prestigious stage win. They were joined with only 600 m to ride by Paret-Peintre’s teammate, Ilan Van Wilder, who provided his Soudal Quick-Step mate with some valuable slipstream, until Healy attacked at 500 m, on one of the steepest parts of the climb. But the 24-year-old Frenchman outkicked him to take a famous victory, the first French victory of this Tour, Paret-Peintre’s first-ever Tour stage win and the first victory on Ventoux by a French rider in 23 years. It was truly breathtaking stuff.
Paret-Peintre said after the stage that he sort of drifted into the breakaway and then found that he had great legs. “That’s why my teammates who were also in the break started working for me. On the final climb, it was difficult. I just couldn’t shake Ben Healy. At 3 km, I told myself that I knew this final ramp and the final curve, which is really very steep, and I knew that I could win on this slope.”
He went on to say, “I saw Ilan arrive, and he rode until the sprint, so it’s also a team victory. We had some difficult times these last few days with Remco [Evenepoel] leaving the race. Now we can lift our heads.” Paret-Peintre was very emotional after the stage and shared a heartfelt embrace of gratitude with Van Wilder.
Pogačar redemption on the Col de la Loze
If the Col de la Loze sounds familiar to you, it should be. It was the last time in a Grand Tour that Pogačar showed any weakness. The year was 2023, and the mountain was the last climb of stage 17, a long, strength-sapping ascent (26.4 km @ 6.5%). About halfway up the Beyond Category climb, the Slovenian dropped out of the group that also contained Vingegaard and uttered the words that have already become lore in Tour history: “I’m gone, I’m dead,” he told his sports director, and then lost more than 6 minutes and the Tour to his rival.
Scroll ahead two years, and Visma–Lease a Bike had a plan for a repeat of that day. They would send satellite riders ahead and drive the peloton to soften up the legs of the Slovenian and his support riders. In the meantime, Primož Roglič (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe), languishing in fifth place in the GC, made a bold move to try and get on the GC podium. He launched an attack on the first climb of the stage, the HC (Beyond Category) Col du Glandon (21.7 km @ 5.1%), with 128 km left to ride in the 171.5 km course from Vif to Courchevel (Col de la Loze), which comprised 5,480 m of climbing.
A 13-rider group formed around Roglič that contained Visma’s main satellite rider, Matteo Jorgenson. When the breakaway group reached the HC Col de la Madeleine (19.2 km @ 7.9%), Jorgenson and Thyman Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers) broke away from the group, which now contained only six riders, including the eventual winner of the stage, Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla). When the peloton reached the Madeleine, Visma went into overdrive on the climb. Some 4.5 km from the summit, Vingegaard attacked, followed closely by Pogačar and Lipowitz, who soon lost touch with the pair near the summit and rode on alone.
Zobrazit příspěvek na Instagramu
The two GC favourites caught the Roglič group and headed for the Col de la Loze, with the group containing UAE and Visma support riders more than 2 minutes behind. Pogačar was isolated, but Vingegaard had Jorgenson with him and was leading the group. It was an ideal situation. But here Visma blundered. Rather than continuing on, the group waited for the pursuers to catch up and let Jorgenson ride away with O’Connor and Einer Rubio (Movistar). Perhaps the team thought that the American could ride for the stage win or would serve again as a satellite rider. But Jorgenson eventually faltered and was of no further use to Visma. To make matters worse, the UAE support riders took charge of the peloton with 11 km left to climb to the Col de la Loze.
Everyone was waiting for Vingegaard’s final attack on the ascent – he had to attack early if he wanted to reduce his arrears to the world champion, and he had promised to go for broke in the stage, even if it meant sacrificing his podium place. He did attack, but with only 875 m left in the race, far too late to do any damage. And, in any case, Pogačar again outsprinted him to the finish line.
It was a disappointing and anticlimactic end to a stage that had promised so much drama, but ended with the sound of a popped balloon. Going into Friday’s stage 19, the last mountain stage in the race, Pogačar led Vingegaard in the GC by 4:26, with Lipowitz, who rode more than half of the stage solo, in third, at 11:01. In the meantime O’Connor had dropped Rubio on the climb and rode a brave 15.8 km solo up the mountain to take the second Tour stage of his career. He finished 1:45 ahead of Pogačar, with Vingegaard finishing a further 9 seconds behind.
“I think it looked like we were pretty equal today,” Vingegaard said immediately after the stage. “He took a few seconds in the end, but the Tour is not over.”
Yes, Jonas, it is.
Visma was not the only team to blunder on the stage. I don’t understand why Lipowitz was allowed by his team to ride so much of the stage on his own. He was not only allowed, but was encouraged by his sports director to continue rather than wait for a group and limit his losses. Before the stage, he had led Picnic PostNL’s Oscar Onley by 2:01 in the GC and the race for the best young rider’s white jersey. That lead is now down to 12 seconds, as Onley rode the entire race in a group, without having to exert himself.
What were they thinking? Lipowitz is not Pogačar – though I doubt that the world champion would have done much better than the German did under these circumstances. What were they trying to do? Go for the stage win? If so, they sent him too late, and they should have seen that he had no chance. “I ran out of energy on that final climb,” Lipowitz said. “We’ll make a plan for tomorrow [Friday] and then we’ll see what happens.”
Whatever happens will happen on an altered course because Tour organisers made a late change to Friday’s stage 19, after a contagious cattle disease on the Col des Saisies was detected and will require the culling of the sick animals. Apparently afraid that farmers will protest, the organisers reduced the original 129.9 km course to 95 km and removed two of the five categorised climbs, the Côte d’Héry-sur-Ugine (11.3 km @ 5.1%) and the Col des Saisies (13.7 km @ 6.4%).
Results of Stage 18, 2025 Tour de France
- Ben O’Connor, Jayco AlUla 5:03:47
- Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +1:45
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike +1:54
- Oscar Onley, Picnic PostNL +1:58
- Einer Rubio, Movistar +2:00
- Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +2:25
- Primož Roglič, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +2:46
- Adam Yates, UAE Team Emirates–XRG +3:03
- Tobias Halland Johannessen, Uno-X Mobility +3:09
- Sepp Kuss, Visma–Lease a Bike +3:26
2025 Tour de France General Classification After Stage 18
- Tadej Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates–XRG 66:55:42
- Jonas Vingegaard, Visma–Lease a Bike +4:26
- Florian Lipowitz, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +11:01
- Oscar Onley, Oscar Onley, Picnic PostNL +11:23
- Primož Roglič, Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe +12:49
- Felix Gall, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale +15:36
- Kévin Vauquelin, Arkéa–B&B Hotels +16:15
- Tobias Halland Johannessen, Uno-X Mobility +18:31
- Ben Healy, EF Education –EasyPost +25:41
- Ben O’Connor, Jayco AlUla +29:19
