Tour de France 2025: stage 18 from Vif to Courchevel Col de la Loze

The Guardian

24-07-2025

Update:
Date: 2025-07-24T09:30:11.000Z
Title: Preamble
Content: Today's stage doesn't ask the riders for much, unless you count 5,450m of climbing across three hors catégorie mountains on the 171km route. Perhaps the more significant figure is 14,000: the sum total in metres of vertical ascent in four stages remaining (4,550m tomorrow, 2,990m on Saturday and 1,100m on Sunday, added to 5,450m today).
It will be gruelling, brutal, epic, punishing, attritional – take your pick. It might even be dramatic if Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease A Bike can isolate the race leader, Tadej Pogacar, and take a chunk or two out of his commanding 4min 15sec lead in the general classification. The Col du Glandon, Col de la Madeleine and Col de la Loze must all be tackled by the peloton today: the sheer length and difficulty of the stage promises another rich self-contained narrative within the context of one of the toughest Tours in history. No doubt, Vingegaard's team have created a plan for how they might launch attacks on Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates most effectively.
A successful Visma counterattack is not beyond the bounds of possibility but given Pogacar's flying form, it feels more likely the reigning champion will roll with the punches, yet again, and take another significant step towards glory in Paris.
This being the Tour de France there will be subplots aplenty. The battle to form the breakaway will be fierce, with the 15 teams that remain empty-handed particularly motivated, while the race for the podium and top 10 in GC is very much on. Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek, who won yesterday to forge a 72-point lead over Pogacar in the green jersey standings, will merely be aiming to make the time cut, hoping a stage win for the Slovenian doesn't reignite the points classification race.
It's going to be emotional. Are you ready? Allez!
Stage start: 11.20 UK time / 12.20 local time