Tour de France 2021 - Stage 18, as it happened: Tadej Pogacar makes it three at Luz Ardiden
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Updated 15/07/2021 at 15:57 GMT
It seems that nothing can stop Tadej Pogacar on his relentless march towards a second yellow jersey in a row after he won Stage 18 at Luz Ardiden. Read how the day unfolded and Pogacar, by strengthening his grip on yellow, also took the polka dots... You can watch the Tour de France live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk.
Stage 18 profile: Pau - Luz Ardiden
New top 10: Uran drops to 10th
Pogacar is now 5'45" clear of Vingegaard with Carapaz third at 5'51". O'Connor and Kelderman are fourth and fifth while Uran, after his wobble today, drops six places to 10th place. Thanks for joining me today - see you tomorrow for a chance to see if Mark Cavendish can become the outright leading Tour stage winner. Until then, here's the moment Pogacar took a third win and all but secured a second Tour de France victory...
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'An absolute phenomenon!' - Dominant Pogacar takes third stage win to put icing on cake
Today's top 10 in Stage 18
In the end there was just a 40-second gap between Pogacar, the winner, and tenth-place Alejandro Valverde. You sensed that Pog would have liked Vingegaard to win that stage - but in easing up to give the Dane the initiative, opened the door to Mas. Once the Spaniard darted clear, the ywlloe jersey had no choice but to close it down and secure his hat-trick.
Hat-trick for Tadej Pogacar who wins Stage 18
The peerless Pogacar takes a third win on Luz Ardiden - and does so with such ease that he can relax and soak it all up. Behind, Jonas Vingegaard beats Richard Carapaz to second place, before Enric Mas takes fourth and then Dan Martin fifth. So, that's back-to-back stage wins for the yellow jersey with President Emmanuel Macron watching. With that win, Pogacar also secures the polka dot jersey. Another whitewash from the 22-year-old.
Final kilometre
Now Enric Mas takes it up, the Spaniard sensing a stalemate and taking advantage. Pogacar closes the gap with his two podium rivals stuck to his wheel. But that's it for Kuss. And now Carapaz takes it up - albeit reluctantly, as he sweeps to the side to force the others through. Mas senses an opportunity and kicks clear again... but that just inspires the yellow jersey to kick clear.
2km: Kuss still pacing
The American doing the work suggests Vingegaard feels confident - and it's a good line given what happened yesterday: you sense that Pogacar would be happy to let the white jersey wearer take the win if it means Carapaz doesn't. As for Mas - he may rise up to fifth but surely the stage is behind him.
Behind, there's a big attack from Dan Martin who rides clear of the chase group - perhaps the Irishman feels like he can catch the leaders and then contest for the win. That would be quite something.
3km: Pogacar takes it up
As soon as Rafal Majka peels off, Pogacar dances on the pedals and forces the first shake up in this leading group. He has Carapaz, Kuss, Vinegaard and Mas with him. It's the American Kuss - the only non-GC rider in this leading quintet - who comes to the front to take up pacing duties. They have about 15 seconds on an eight-man chase group.
4km: Around 14 in this leading group
The remaining riders here are Pogacar, Majka, Kuss, Vingegaard, Carapaz, Castroviejo, Dan Martin, Mas, Valverde, Buchmann, Kelderman, Guillaume Martin, Higuita, O'Connor and Bilbao. We're hearing that Rigo Uran is now seven minutes back which means the Colombian will lose his place in the top 10 to Gaudu, perhaps, today.
5.5km: Majka comes to the front
UAE Team Emirates lay down the law and show a statement of intent as Rafal Majka eases to the front with his man Pogacar, prompting the end for Geoghegan Hart shift as the young Briton calls it a day. This looks ominous. Van Aert is one of the first top pop, with Gaudu and Poels also off the back, and Lutsenko.
7.5km: Big effort from Geoghegan Hart
The British winner of last year's Giro has his jersey unzipped and his face is running the gamut of expressions between pain and concentration as he continued pulling on the front in the hope of paving the way for Richard Carapaz. It's still quite a large group, though, and the only big GC rider who are not here is Uran, who is five minutes back now. Poels, meanwhile, has turned things round by battling back to this group - chapeau. But to what end? If Pogacar finishes in the top three today, he will take over the polka dot jersey...
10km: Gaudu caught, Quintana dropped
The lone leader has been caught after his foray off the front. Meanwhile, Nairo Quintana is the latest to fold off the back. Michal Kwiatkowski peels off after his effort - that leaves Carapaz with two men: Geoghegan Hart and Castroviejo. Pogacar, meanwhile, only has Rafal Majka with him now, while Jonas Vingegaard has two Jumbo teammates in Van Aert and Sepp Kuss.
12km: Ineos with four on the front
Gaudu's gap is down to 15 seconds as Dylan Van Baarle peels off from the Ineos train after putting in a huge shift. Both Wout Poels and Michael Woods have been dropped by this main pack so their polka dot prospects have taken a hit. Fraile and Latour, who were in the break, are also going backwards.
14km: Final climb to Luz Ardiden
David Gaudu is onto the final climb, which is 13.3km at 7.4%. The Frenchman has around 25 seconds on a select group which is being paced by the Ineos Grenadiers teammates of Richard Carapaz. Rigo Uran is currently two minutes back after hitting the wall on the Tourmalet. He has a few teammates with him, though, as he bids to stave off his decline (he's currently down to sixth in the virtual standings).
This climb is perhaps best known as the spot where Lance Armstrong crashed in 2003 after snagging his handlebars on a musette being held by a young fan. The American, in yellow, got back up and rejoined the leaders - who had come to a near standstill on Jan Ullrich's instruction - before taking the victory.
20km: Gaudu, the last man standing
David Gaudu is the only man left from the break after the Poels-Woods-Fraile group was swept up by the peloton. The Frenchman has 50 seconds on the peloton as he continues the descent to the foot of the final climb, with the Cavendish gruppetto 15'25" down. The cut-off should be around 37 minutes and so the green jersey will survive ahead of his chance to win a record-breaking 35th Tour stage tomorrow at Libourne.
26km: Gaudu goes clear
The Groupama-FDJ rider has 40 seconds on a chasing quintet of Latour, Woods, Guerreiro, Poels and Fraile, with the yellow jersey pack just one minute down. We're hearing that the Cavendish gruppetto is 10km back. It will be a battle to beat the cut but one in which Cav and his QuickStep teammates are well versed.
35km: Latour takes 20pts on summit
It's Pierre Latour who goes over the cloudy summit of the Tourmalet ahead of David Gaudu. Wout Poels puts in a dig to drop Woods and just pip Omar Fraile to the line, crossing just behind Ruben Guerreiro. Those 10pts will put Poels up to 88pts while Woods's 6pts sees the Canadian go onto 72pts. Wout van Aert was first to cross from the peloton and he pockets 4pts which puts him onto 68pts and in third place on the virtual standings ahead of Pogacar, who has 67pts.
But with 40pts up for grabs for the rider who wins today's stage on Luz Ardiden, Pogacar remains the big favourite to take the polka dot jersey from Wout Poels's slender shoulders today - although the Dutchman would have to keep on wearing the jersey all the way to Paris...
36km: Battle for polka dots kicks off
Ineos have Van Baarle, Kwiatkowski, Castroviejo and Geoghegan Hart on the front for Carapaz as Michael Woods and Wout Poels kick clear in pursuit of the KOM points. That's because there are 20pts available and only a handful of riders up the road - plus they need as many points as possible now because they will no doubt be mopped up by the big guns on the next climb. Guerreiro has been called back to Uran, so it's just Gaudu and Latour ahead, with Fraile with the Portuguese. Alaphilippe appears to have been caught now.
37.7km: Uran and Thomas dropped
Second place until yesterday on GC, Rigo Uran is dropping like a stone now. He fell to fourth at 7'17" yesterday but he's going to continue his drop down the top 10 today. The EF Education-Nippo leader is riding alongside the 2018 winner Geraint Thomas and with two EF teammates with him. Bad overnight recovery for the veteran - and still 2km of this climb to go.
38km: Alaphilippe dropped, Fraile rallies
The world champion's efforts are catching up with him and he won't be the first over the Tourmalet like he was the last time round (if I recall rightly). Fraile, meanwhile, has gone clear in pursuit of Gaudu, Latour and Guerreiro. It looks like he was working for teammate Izagirre but has now been given the nod to ride for himself, because the Spanish champion is making light work of this pursuit.
40km: Break splinters after Alaphilippe burst
Just four out ahead now with Gaudu, Latour and Guerreiro with Alaphilippe, as Elissonde and the Astana duo of Fraile and Izagirre drop back. Mohoric has been caught by the Ineos-led pack and Madouas is an unknown, as is Rolland, which suggests they have been caught too. It's Dylan van Baarle who is setting tempo for Ineos, and doing so without too much of a Carapaz pain face, which suggests the pace is not too high.
41km: 10 riders ahead... but Ineos closing in
Alaphilippe and Mohoric have been joined by Elissonde, Gaudu, Madouas, Guerreiro, Fraile, Izagirre, Latour and Rolland on the front of the race but they still have 6km of this climb and the main field is just 25 seconds back. Ineos clearly mean business because they need to take something from this Tour. Carapaz rode onto the virtual podium yesterday but missed out on the stage win after his play acting in the finale. Ineos have pretty much everyone on the front with the exception of Richie Porte who, let's be honest, has had an exceptionally bad Tour on his return to the Grenadiers. He came third last year and won the Criterium du Dauphine last month, lest we forget...
43km: Six Ineos riders on the front
It's the teammates of Richard Carapaz who are pulling the peloton with the yellow jersey just behind with four UAE teammates (Davide Formolo is the latest to drop back after his earlier work). Ineos have almost sounded the death-knell for the riders out ahead: Alaphilippe and Mohoric only have 45 seconds while that chase group is only 15 seconds up the road. The Cavendish gruppetto, meanwhile, is over five minutes back.
45km: Fraile, Gaudu and Izagirre join chasers
The Spanish champion Omar Fraile (Astana) has ridden over to the chase group along with David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Ion Izagirre (Astana). Ruben Guerreiro (EF Education-Nippo) is also there but Colombian duo Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) have failed to make it. They were reeled in once Ineos Grenadiers came to the front of the main pack to start setting tempo.
47km: French foursome form
If the chasers join the leaders, Matej Mohoric is going to feel very much the odd-man out: the Slovenian would be somewhat outnumbered by home riders because Madouas had joined Rolland, Elissonde and Latour to form a quartet which is around one minute behind the two leaders. The peloton is at 1'40" with Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates bossing it on the front, with Mark Cavendish, the green jersey, riding with three Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates around 2'50" down.
50km: Col du Tourmalet with French trio in pursuit
We're onto the mythical Col du Tourmalet (17.1km at 7.3%) with Alaphilippe and Mohoric holding a gap of 1'40" over the UAE-led peloton. Juul-Jensen has popped while Rolland has been joined by his compatriots Kenny Elissonde and Pierre Latour, who managed to attack from the pack. Another Frenchman, Valentin Madouas, has also managed to get clear. The Groupama-FDJ rider will hope to bridge over to his fellow Frenchmen.
52km: Passing Eugene Christophe territory
We've just passed through Sainte-Marie-de-Campan, famous for being where Eugene Christophe - the first man to don the yellow jersey - had to mend his own bike in a forge after damaging his forks on the Tourmalet during the 1913. He was docked time because of the bellows being blown by a boy and, as a result, lost the chance to win the race. There's more about this story below in a Christophe-themed episode of our historical Re-Cycle series. Plus, the video below that, too.
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Eugène Christophe
Image credit: Eurosport
60km: Attaque de Pierre Rolland!
A strange passage of play sees that Trek trio knock it off before letting Martin go clear. The Irishman then had second thoughts and dropped back - only for an attack to come from the Frenchman Rolland, who tried his luck earlier to little effect. He's joined by Chris Juul-Jensen, who was in the break earlier before dropping back to help Matthews in the lead up to the sprint.
Meanwhile, both Sean Bennett and Pierre-Luc Perichon have thrown in the towel and sat up in the break. So, it's just the world champion and the Slovenian champion out ahead now, with Juul-Jensen and Rolland in pursuit.
65km: Trek-Segafredo try to counter
Three Trek riders have gone clear after the sprint - I think they're Jasper Stuyven, Bauke Mollema and Kenny Elissonde. They have Dan Martin of Israel Start-Up Nation with them in what could be an interesting move ahead of the Tourmalet.
67km: Cavendish denies Matthews in sprint
It's the world champion who leads the break through the intermediate sprint at Pouzac - but the action happens 1'11" later when the peloton comes through and QuickStep outdoes all that work done by BikeExchange: Michael Morkov leads out Mark Cavendish, who I think just about pipped the Dane for the maximum available points for seventh place, with Matthews coming over behind Morkov and therefore 2pts down on the Manxman. So, Cav's cushion is up to 38 points in the green jersey classification.
75km: Alaphilippe takes KOM point over the top
Juul-Jensen has been a passenger in the break since Cavendish's teammate Alaphilippe latched on - and he now drops back to help the pacing of teammate Matthews towards the intermediate sprint. It's the world champion who leads the break over the top of the Loucrup climb around 1'15" ahead. Juul-Jensen trickles over and then pretty much stops and waits for the main field, which has come back together but is all strung out behind Durbridge's pacing - with Cavendish towards the back, but still holding on.
76km: Team BikeExchange make a move
We're onto the Cat.4 Cote de Loucrup (2km at 7%) and Luke Durbridge has ridden clear of the peloton in a softening attack for his teammate Michael Matthews, who soon bridges over and forces a massive flurry of movement off the front of the pack. It's clear what the motivation is here: Matthews wants to distance his green jersey rival Mark Cavendish and then take as many points as possible in the intermediate sprint. He trails the Manxman by 36 points.
83km: Juul-Jensen a passenger in the break
The riders have covered 45.39km in the opening hour of racing today which shows just how fast the pace has been. The five-man break has seen their gap come down to 1'30" thanks to the tempo being set by Wout Poels's team behind. The coherence is breaking down and Alaphilippe is not happy about the lack of work being done by Chris Juul-Jensen, who seems to be there primarily to sandbag and offer up no pulls. The world champion has a word with him - and then speaks to Mohoric and Perichon about the Dane. It's a tense atmosphere as they approach the second climb of the day.
92km: Bahrain Victorious lead the peloton
Despite their police raid last night at 2am Bahrain Victorious are heavily involved in today's stage: not only do they have Slovenian champion Mohoric in the break (1'45" up the road) they have Marco Haller leading a train of riders for their sprinter Sonny Colbrelli on the nose of the peloton. This is because the team have ambitions in two jersey competitions: the polka dot jersey for Wout Poels (whose lead is down to just 9pts over Pogacar following the Slovenian's win on the Col du Portet) and the green jersey for Colbrelli (despite the Italian champion being 86pts down on Mark Cavendish there. But with an intermediate sprint before the big climbs, who knows what may happen...
97km: Five clear after duo join leaders
Julian Alaphilippe pats Pierre-Luc Perichon on the back and the pair share a crafty fist-pump as the latch on to the break after their fierce chase - which was given fresh impetus by the Cofidis rider joining the world champion and the pair joining forces. So, we have this pair with Mohoric, Jensen and Bennett with a gap of 1'30" on the pack.
102km: Attaque de Pierre Rolland!
The French veteran from B&B Hotels can't help himself and tries to zip clear from the pack. You have to admire the indefatigable and entirely misplaced chutzpah from a rider who will no doubt get dropped, regardless of where he is, on the early slopes of the Tourmalet...
105km: Rapid start as duo close in
Poor Davide Formolo was off the back with a mechanical issue - not ideal when the pace is so high, and the UAE rider will be needed by his leader Pogacar on the big climbs today. Pacher and Henao are back on after their respective visits to the medical car, the Colombian with his left thigh all bandaged up to cover the road rash. Our French chasing duo of Alaphilippe and Perichon are just 20 seconds behind the three leaders with the peloton over a minute back now.
112km: Perichon joins Alaphilippe
Just when it looks like Julian Alaphilippe's time out ahead was over, the world champion is joined by compatriot Pierre-Luc Perichon, who taps him on the bottom and urges him to tuck in and press on despite the peloton breathing down their neck. This gives the QuickStep man a second wind and they open up a gap on the pack in their bid to join the leaders.
118km: Juul-Jensen leads break over the top
It's the Dane who goes over the summit in pole position to take the solitary KOM point. But that's the least interesting development in the last few minutes... We just saw a tangle between Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels) and Sergio Henao (Qhubeka-NextHash) with both riders hitting the deck after leading the chase on a small chase group riding off in pursuit of Alaphilippe. Wout van Aert, the Belgian champion, Wout Poels, the polka dot jersey, and Geoghegan Hart all look to be attentive to all the moves and on the front.
Pacher and Henao are both on their way after changing bikes, with the Frenchman clearly unhappy with the Colombian for his role in that touching of wheels that caused the crash.
120km: Alaphilippe with small gap ahead of climb
After an acceleration by Franck Bonnamour - who has had a super debut Tour for B&B Hotels - his compatriot Julian Alaphilippe zips clear in his rainbow bands. The Frenchman hits the starts of the first climb - the Cat.4 Cote de Notre-Dame de Pietat (2.6km at 5.6%) - with a 20-second gap on the peloton, trailing the three leaders by 25 seconds.
125km: Active on the front of the break
Frenchman Cyrul Barthe (B&B Hotels) zipped off in pursuit of the leading trio but he has just been swept up by the peloton which has riders from Movistar, Team DSM and Ineos Grenadiers sniffing around on the front. For Ineos it's Tao Geoghegan Hart, who has not looked anything remotely like the rider who won the 2020 Giro d'Italia in his debut Tour appearance. The gap for the leaders, meanwhile, is up to 55 seconds.
129.7km to go: Stage 18 under way!
It's the usual sight of a masked-up Christian Prudhomme emerging from the sunroof of his red Skoda to wave his yellow flag and get this final mountain stage of this Tour going. And we have an attack from the outset from a trio of riders: Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Chris Juul-Jensen (Team BikeExchange) and Sean Bennett (Qhubeka-NextHash).
Vingegaard mechanical in neutral zone
The Danish tyro Jonas Vingegaard needs a bike change after an issue before the official start. He battled back yesterday after Richard Carapaz's bluffing on the Col du Portet - and second place behind Pogacar saw the Jumbo-Visma debutant rise up to second place in the GC after Rigo Uran conceded the bast part of two minutes.
Bahrain Victorious hotel raided by police
The big overnight news is that French police have raided Bahrain Victorious' team hotel. Police searched the team's base on Wednesday evening with directeur sportif Milan Erzen confirming the raid. "Nothing special, we have a visit from the police, they ask for riders training files, they check bus and that’s it," he said about the visit from police.
Read all about it in full below...
Riders edging through the neutral zone in Pau
It's another overcast day in Pau, the gateway to the Pyrenees, but there's no rain and its not as cold as the past two days - reflected in an absence of leg/arm warmers in the peloton. We have 144 riders left in this race with over four hours separating yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar and lanterne rouge Tim Declercq in the general classification. Here's what's on the menu today, with two fourth-category climbs preceding the intermediate sprint ahead of the two HC tests - the Col du Tourmalet and the final climb of Luz Ardiden.
Stage 17 recap
A fifth Tour de France stage victory in only 38 stages to date – and a first ever in the famous yellow jersey – saw Tadej Pogacar all but secure a second triumph in the world’s biggest bike race.
The 22-year-old UAE Team Emirates rider left rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) for dead in the closing moments of the Col du Portet – but only after Ecuador’s Carapaz put in a stinging attack that had Pogacar on the ropes and sent the Danish debutant Vingegaard very much in the red.
Pogacar reeled Carapaz in and then sat on his rival’s wheel – mirroring the Ineos leader’s antics over the course of the entire climb – as Vingegaard fought back after the tunnel marking the final kilometre. A last kick on the sweeping ramp to the finish was enough for Pogacar to take his second stage win of the race by three seconds over Vingegaard, with Carapaz crossing the line another second back.
Full report here.
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