Tour de France 2024 Stage 18

18 Jul 2024

By Gianni Pericolo - In THE GREAT RACE

photo credits @ Le Tour

Victor Campenaerts (Lotto–Dstny) proved the strongest rider in today’s breakaway, claiming stage 18 of the Tour de France in Barcelonnette.

Campenaerts was part of a three-rider move that was instigated by Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) that jettisoned the main breakaway with 40km to go. Together with Tour debutant Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), the escapees took turns at the front to hold off a chasing group.

With 900m to go, Vercher launched his sprint first, before Kwiatkowski took the front, followed by a counter-attack from Campenaerts with 200m to go, with there Belgian rider winning by two bike lengths ahead of Vercher.

Race Highlights

The stage commenced with 145 riders on the start line in Gap, with the teams alert to the high probability of immediate breakaway attempts. That was exactly how the stage started, with the World Champion Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin – Deceuninck) amongst those highly active at the front of the bunch looking to escape. After constant attacks and counter attacks in the opening kilometers Van der Poel was finally not amongst the large group of about 20 riders who went clear at km 26, just before the first climb to the Col du Festre.

Talent in the breakaway

Finally 37 riders made it into the breakaway, namely Bart Lemmen, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Chris Juul Jensen, Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), Michal Kwiatkowski, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Julien Bernard, Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), Bruno Armirail, Dorian Godon, Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale), Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Jai Hindley, Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Valentin Madouas, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Richard Carapaz, Ben Healy, Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-dstny), Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Alex Aranburu, Oier Lazkano, Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar Team), Clement Champoussin, Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Louis Meintjes, Georg Zimmermann (Intermarche-Wanty), Oscar Onley, Frank Van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Steff Cras, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Jordan Jegat and Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies). Meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates, Soudal Quick-Step, Alpecin – Deceuninck and Astana Qazaqstan were the four teams without representation in the breakaway, all four having already achieved at least one stage win at this year’s Tour.

Five categorized climbs

Lazkano was the first over the Col du Festre summit, as well as the Côte de Corps and the Col de Manse, while Onley lost contact with the breakaway due to a series of mechanical problems. Matthews was first in the Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur intermediate sprint, where the breakaway enjoyed a lead of 5’40” over a peloton controlled by UAE Team Emirates. There were numerous attacks at the front of the large breakaway on the Côte de Saint-Apollinaire, which was topped first by Johannessen, with the leaders of the stage going over the climb 10’30” ahead of the bunch. On the final categorized climb of the stage it was Kwiatkowski who led the way over the Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées and after the descent a trio formed at the front of the race, 35 km from the finish line, as Vercher and Campenaerts joined the Polish rider in the lead.

A thrilling finale

Over a final sector of 25km of rising false flats Kwiatkowski, Vercher and Campenaerts collaborated well, to open up a gap over the chasing group behind them. With 15 kilometers to go the leading trio had managed to extend their advantage over the five closest chasers to over 40”. In the final meters of the stage Campenaerts proved too strong for his rivals and outpaced them to the line for the win.

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Tour de France 2024 Stage 18

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