Le Tour peloton prepares for the high mountains

Le Tour peloton prepares for the high mountains

Barcelonnette, a small town lying in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, returned at the Tour de France after almost half a century, this time as a finish for stage 18, which started from Gap and took in five classified climbs. It was another route perfect for a breakaway, and when a massive 36-man group took off it soon became clear they would fight for the win.

The action at the front began with 40 kilometers to go, as several riders tried to go clear on the up-and-down roads that were perfect for these kinds of moves. With the peloton more than 12 minutes behind, the escapees had plenty of time for a cat-and-mouse game that eventually led to three riders going clear, and from that small group, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) took the victory.

Remco Evenepoel and Mikel Landa – together with their Soudal Quick-Step teammates – arrived home together with the bunch, and the Belgian took again to the podium to receive his 17th white jersey. Remco will sport it on Friday’s leg-sapping stage to Isola 2000, which will include a trip up the Cime de la Bonette, the third-highest paved road in Europe, at 2802 meters.

“The start was a bit intense, but overall, it was a pretty easy stage. We still had to remain focused because there were some tricky descents and the rough roads. We stayed out of trouble and can be content with our day. Now we’ll see what we can do on Friday, where the gradients won’t be as difficult as in the Pyrenees, but the altitude could lead to somefireworks”, said Evenepoel after the stage.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Victor Campenaerts
Lotto Dstny
4:10:20
2 Mattéo Vercher
TotalEnergies
0:00
3 Michał Kwiatkowski
INEOS Grenadiers
0:00
4 Toms Skujiņš
Lidl - Trek
0:22
5 Oier Lazkano López
Movistar Team
0:22
6 Bart Lemmen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:22
7 Krists Neilands
Israel - Premier Tech
0:22
8 Jai Hindley
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:22
9 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:37
10 Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla
0:37
45 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
13:40
48 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
13:40
50 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
13:40
52 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
13:40
64 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
13:40
70 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
13:40
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
74:45:27
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
3:11
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
5:09
4 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
12:57
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
13:24
6 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
13:30
7 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
15:41
8 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
17:51
9 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
18:15
10 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
18:35
27 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:16:44
82 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
3:04:03
84 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
3:04:32
124 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
4:00:10
1 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
387 pt
2 Jasper Philipsen
Alpecin - Deceuninck
354 pt
3 Bryan Coquard
Cofidis
188 pt
4 Anthony Turgis
TotalEnergies
163 pt
5 Arnaud De Lie
Lotto Dstny
161 pt
6 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
152 pt
7 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
136 pt
8 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
136 pt
9 Pascal Ackermann
Israel - Premier Tech
118 pt
10 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
112 pt
37 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
38 pt
100 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
7 pt
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
77 pt
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
58 pt
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
42 pt
4 Oier Lazkano López
Movistar Team
41 pt
5 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
37 pt
6 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
36 pt
7 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
30 pt
8 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
24 pt
9 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
21 pt
10 Tobias Halland Johannessen
Uno-X Mobility
19 pt
16 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
14 pt
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
74:50:36
2 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
8:21
3 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
13:26
4 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
17:09
5 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
37:13
6 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
51:14
7 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:11:35
8 Jordan Jegat
TotalEnergies
1:25:27
9 Tobias Halland Johannessen
Uno-X Mobility
1:26:02
10 Oscar Onley
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
1:47:53
1 UAE Team Emirates 224:41:24
2 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 27:57
3 INEOS Grenadiers 52:14
4 Soudal Quick-Step 59:21
5 Lidl - Trek 1:29:03
6 Movistar Team 1:39:10
7 EF Education - EasyPost 2:08:08
8 Bahrain - Victorious 2:11:47
9 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 2:17:45
10 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 2:34:20

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