Tadej Pogacar stretches advantage in yellow at he Tour de France; Ben Healey stays ninth
On the mountain where Pogacar famously cracked in 2023 as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to his second Tour crown, Pogacar was the one gaining time two years later as a late dig at the summit saw him add 11 seconds to an overall lead that now stands at four minutes 26 seconds over Vingegaard.
Oscar Onley, the 22-year-old Scot, hung with the two main favourites until the last 500 metres of this brutal 171.5km stage from Vif which took in three hors categorie climbs, gaining 39 seconds on Florian Lipowitz to move to within 22 seconds of the podium with one mountain stage left.
Stage honours belonged to O'Connor, who attacked on the valley road between the Col de la Madeleine and the final climb, leaving Einer Rubio behind 16km from the summit of this 26km long climb with double digit gradients and hail awaiting the riders on the narrow bike path to the summit.
The Australian came to this Tour targeting the general classification but saw those hopes dashed by injuries sustained in a stage-one crash, and has had to recalibrate his ambitions to realise his second career Tour stage win, and first since 2021.
Healey (EF Education-EasyPost) lost nearly eight minutes to Pogačar on stage 18, but holds ninth – partially aided by the abandon of Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers). Healey is now 25:41 off the Slovenian in the race lead.
The penultimate mountain stage of this Tour was another opportunity for Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team to try to isolate Pogacar, and they made their first big moves on the Madeleine.
Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG lieutenants fell away but recovered before the climb up through Courcheval. Vingegaard tried a late attack but it was Pogacar who came over the top to edge closer to a fourth career Tour crown.
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