Tadej Pogacar tightens grip on yellow jersey at Tour de France 2025 after Stage 18

Paris [France], July 26 (ANI): Tadej Pogacar closed on a fourth Tour de France title as Jonas Vingegaard failed to make a fight of it on the queen stage, which was superbly won by Ben O’Connor.

Returning to the Col de la Loze, where he famously cracked and declared “I’m gone, I’m dead" in 2023, Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) outshone his big rival Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) to take more time in the fight for yellow, as per a release from the Tour de France.

It was also a great day for Britain’s Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL), who produced a superb ride to move just 22 seconds off the podium after matching the big two for much of the finale.

The 171.5km Alpine Queen Stage, containing more climbing than any other and taking the Tour to its highest point, promised to pack in a full day of excitement. The peloton collectively agreed to suspend active hostilities until after the early intermediate sprint. Once Jonathan Milan, in the green jersey, had added 20 points to his total, the racing was on.

The 171.5km Alpine Queen Stage, containing more climbing than any other and taking the Tour to its highest point, promised to pack in a full day of excitement.

The peloton collectively agreed to suspend active hostilities until after the early intermediate sprint. Once Jonathan Milan, in the green jersey, had added 20 points to his total, the racing was on.

First out of the blocks was Pogacar’s UAE-Emirates team-mate, and Sunday’s stage winner, Tim Wellens. Though not a climber, by being up the roa,d his job was to act as a potential “satellite" for Pogacar, by being able to drop back and help later in the stage.

So much hard climbing meant it was not a day when a large group was likely to stay together on the climbs. The first that formed included riders such as Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R), Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Bruno Armirail (Decathlon), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), plus O’Connor (Jayco Alula).

Various ambitions were represented from elevating general classification positions, to King of the Mountains Points to those targeting the stage. At the start of the day, 15 out of the 23 teams were heading home empty-handed.

On the first of the three third category climbs, the 23km long Col du Glandon, they held a steady pace. Back in the bunch, Visma and UAE maintained a strong enough pace to keep the gap to around three minutes. At the summit, Martinez, wearing the polka dot jersey, outsprinted Arensman to add twenty to his total, although he would later be docked eight of those after being spotted holding on excessively to his team car.

Arensman and Jorgenson distanced themselves from the rest on the descent, reaching the foot of the 19km long Col de la Madelaine with around 30 seconds over the chasers, led by Primoz Roglic. That second group soon caught them, but the yellow jersey group was closing even faster. Visma buried themselves on the climb, chopping the gap and brutally dispensing of riders, including their own, until the peloton was less than a dozen strong.

An aggressive acceleration from Jonas Vingegaard with 73km to go did not sever the tie to Tadej Pogacar but served to deliver what remained of the peloton to the wheel of Jorgenson. With Lipowitz and Onley distanced that left a group of seven made up of those three, plus Gall, Roglic, O’Connor and Rubio.

The yellow jersey and Visma leaders briefly battled for the top mountain points before heading over the summit, where Jorgenson began to apply more pressure.

The reduced group of contenders made it safely down the mountain and back into the valley, where Ben O’Connor was the first to attack, taking Rubio and Jorgenson with him. None of the rest wanted to ride too hard for the others, while the advantage was to those sitting in the wheels. On the approach to the final climb, Lipowitz, having regained contact and recovered, made a break for it. It would herald disaster, as he was unable to make it up to the leaders, and the effort would cost him the capacity to stay with his closest GC rivals once they caught up with him.

On the Col de la Loze itself, a 26.4km climb, while the yellow jersey group eased up, O’Connor and Rubio made good progress. Picnic-PostNL delivered Oscar Onley back into the fight, along with several teammates each for Pogacar and Vingegaard. Their respective surrogates traded blows from the front, dropping all but each other, Onley, Roglic and Gall.

While the hoped-for swings between the top two didn’t come until the very top of the climb, Lipowitz was shipping time to Onley, hanging onto his podium place and the white jersey by the thinnest of threads. O’Connor, meanwhile, pressed on in time trial mode, distancing Rubio through Courchevel centre as he drew closer to the summit.

A late charge from Pogacar was enough for him to displace Rubio from second, adding six seconds of bonus time on top of the nine gained over the Dane on the road. Onley took 99 seconds out of Lipowitz, leaving just 22 between them with three stages remaining.

For Jonas Vingegaard, “today was a brutal day." Although his team “had big plans," in the end, it was not enough and “unfortunately, I couldn’t take any time on Tadej." With one big mountain stage to come, he maintained that “the Tour is not over."

Happier times for O’Connor, who had struggled with illness and injury through the first weeks of the race.

“The valley was the perfect opportunity to take time. You’re going to be smoked by Tadej and Jonas if you stay there, so it was worth a shot." After going solo on the Col de La itself, “it was all about pacing and speed and typical time trial stuff. It’s what I do best," he explained afterwards.

Going into the final mountain stage on Friday, Pogacar leads by 4’26 from Vingegaard. He also leads the mountains competition by 16 points. Jonathan Milan is in control of green. (ANI)

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