Key events
83km to go: Martinez is slipping back through the peloton after winning the first climb. Arensman of Ineos, no doubt, is going for maximum points on this next climb, and that would put him in the KOM lead.
The third group on the road, by the way, has four riders in it: Muhlberger, Van Den Broek, Leknessund and Lutsenko. The Roglic group, second on the road, is 23sec behind the two leaders.
84km to go: “Joining lots of others in following along from the office,” writes Sam on email. “Although I reckon I’ll have to find a way to put the stream on when the nuclear Jonas attack comes in about 10kms (fingers crossed). Jonas to get across to Jorgenson, and put 5 mins into Pog? Maybe?”
I think Pogacar has the legs to cover it, and then some, but let’s see.
84km to go: It’s a lead of about 30sec for the front group.
Enric Mas (Movistar) has abandoned the race.
86km to go: Now it’s two up front. Jorgenson (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) are working together. They have 40sec on the chase group, that consists of nine riders: Roglic, Gall, O’Connor, Garcia Pierna, Wellens, Baudin, Rubio, Armirail and Lutsenko.
86km to go: “A lot of riders all over the road at the minute,” says Adam Blythe on the TNT Sports motorbike, flying down the descent off the Col du Glandon. “Difficult to keep up with who is where.”
Amen, brother.
89km to go: Arensman, Wellens and Jorgenson are out front on their own now, a breakaway group of three. They are about to hit the second ascent of the day, the start of the Col de la Madeleine.
92km to go: A good bit of Roglic banter from Daniel Friebe on “Twitter”, as I like to call it.
Roglič‘s last two results in Courchevel: 11th & 13th.
Both in ski-jumping.
— Daniel Friebe (@friebos) July 24, 2025
95km to go: Martinez now tops the KOM standings, with 80pts, and Arensman is second, with 63. “Pogi” has been relegated to third, for now, on 60pts. You fancy that will change later.
97km to go: Carlton Kirby steps in on commentary and pours praise on Martinez for winning the KOM points atop the Col du Glandon. The co-commentator Robbie McEwen fills him in on those “sticky bottles”. Matt White wonders out loud if any action will be taken against the Frenchman and his team.
101km to go: The leading group, to recap, consists of 13 riders.
Oh, I really should tell you that Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) took 20 KOM points atop the first climb. Arensman was second, Jorgenson third. The commentators were scoffing at the assistance Martinez received from his team car on the way up.
105km to go: Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) and Garcia Pierna (Arkéa–B&B Hotels) almost crash on the descent off the Col du Glandon.
It looks like we have seven separate groups on the road right now.
107km to go: Matt White, the former Jayco-AlUla DS, hits the commentary box. “I like this move by Roglic,” he says. “He’s obviously feeling better as this Tour goes on. If anything he is putting Onley under pressure.”
He then mentions the current ride by the powerhouse Nils Pollitt, who is controlling the gap for Pogacar. Mind-blowing, I think he called it, which is fair considering Pollitt’s sheer size compared to the pure climbers.
“He’s a machine,” White says of Pollitt.
109km to go: Wellens, who is in some of the best form of his excellent career, races back to the front group after that mechanical issue.
110km to go: There are some clouds up at the peak of the mountain but the weather isn’t bad at all. Small mercies for these overworked riders. Plenty of time for it to change on the later peaks, of course.
Wellens has a mechanical and needs a bike change, it looks like. Now Emmanuel Buchmann (Cofidis) also has a mechanical.
110km to go: Jegat, Rodriguez, Berthet, Baudin, Woods, Van den Broek, Barta and Plapp are the eight riders in the second group. Although Berthet, it appears, is trying to make it across to the leaders now.
111.5km to go: We have 2.3km to go until the top of the Col du Glandon.
This is making me tired just watching it.
113km to go: Down to 13 in the front group: Wellens, Jorgenson, Lenny Martinez, Arensman, Roglic, O’Connor, Garcia Pierna, Muhlberger, Rubio, Gall, Armirail, Lutsenko, Leknessund.
On the telly, Lenny Martinez is pictured getting a sticky bottle or two from his team car. Clearly he isn’t feeling good, and Rob Hatch on commentary suggests his fairly blatant conduct is worthy of a yellow card.
115km to go: The breakaway has 53sec on the chasers. There are 14 riders up front.
Pogacar suffers pre-stage scare in Visma team car shunt
The Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogacar suffered a big scare on Thursday when he bumped into the team car of his chief rival, Jonas Vingegaard, before stage 18.
“We were going to the start line and the cars were also going … we were cruising behind the (Visma-Lease a Bike) car, maybe a bit too close, and he braked suddenly … maybe I don’t know if he wanted to brake check me,” Pogacar said with a smile.
“I was not ready because I did not see the reason why he had to stop urgently, so we crashed into the car … but it’s OK, I’m OK, we’re good.”
117.5km to go: Another 8.5km to climb before the top of the Col du Glandon is reached.
118km to go: The sixth and last group on the road contains 52 riders, and predictably Milan is among them. The yellow jersey group – Pogacar’s that is – contains 23 riders. Pollitt, Soler, Adam Yates and Jhonatan Narvaez are alongside their leader, Pogacar.
119km to go: This is all very well, but have these guys tried cycling up from the tollgate in Dulwich to Crystal Palace three times in a row, like I did the other week? I think not.
119km to go: Mas, Berthet, Baudin and Barre make up the third group, 54sec behind the leaders.
120km to go: Of course, Richard Hirst Theory states that this is all a bit of fun, and that Vingegaard and Pogacar are bound to duke it out on the slopes of today’s final climb, the Col de la Loze. Are you out there, Richard?
120km to go: No, make that six groups on the road.
121km to go: It’s a 35sec lead for the break. There are now four distinct groups on the road. A six-rider group is second: Jegat (Total Energies), Rodriguez (Arkea/B&B), Mas (Movistar), Woods (Israel-PremierTech), Van den Broek (Picnic PostNL), Castrillo (Movistar) and Plapp (Jayco-AlUla).
122km to go: “If UAE let this break go, and give them six, seven minutes, other teams are going to try and protect their GC places,” says Rowe on commentary for TNT Sports.
He says it may appear as if UAE are being put under a lot of pressure, but makes the point that Pogacar’s commanding GC lead gives them plenty of options.
123km to go: We have a 16-rider group at the front now: Roglic, Gall, O’Connor, Arensman, Jorgenson, Muhlberger, Garcia Pierna, Wellens, Woods, Rubio Reyes, Armirail, Leknessund, Storer, Lutsenko, Martinez, Barta.
124km to go: Roglic is informed, via team radio, that UAE Team Emirates are pulling hard on the front. “Don’t waste that much,” he is told of this current attack.
125km to go: Lutsenko and Wellens are now well within sight of a chasing group. That group includes Roglic.
It’s all very active and very fluid, with groups forming and breaking up with regularity.
Congratulations to Lizzie Deignan on a wonderful career, by the way. I was watching on the final straight when she won silver in the women’s road race, behind Marianne Vos, at London 2012. Great memories.
Lizzie Deignan retires from cycling
Lizzie Deignan has announced her immediate retirement from professional cycling after sharing news that she and husband Phil are expecting their third child. The 36-year old former world champion had previously said 2025 would be her final season but has called time on a career in which she recorded 43 professional wins, among them victories at Paris-Roubaix, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Strade Bianche, the Tour of Flanders and the Women’s Tour. Deignan took the world title in 2015, a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2014 and Olympic silver at the London Games in 2012. (PA Media)
127km to go: Roglic powers away from Van Aert, who is back in a bunch of riders who are off the front of the main group. It’s all strung out, gaps everywhere, with the riders toiling up the first HC climb.
Plenty of excitement in the commentary box about Roglic attacking. He is 12sec behind the front two, Wellens and Lutsenko.
127km to go: Now Van Aert is dropping off the pace at the front. Wellens is the man setting a fierce pace. No one can accuse UAE Team Emirates XRG of just sitting there and waiting to defend attacks …
Back down the road, Roglic attacks!
128km to go: Rutsch has been dropped by the front group. So it’s down to four. Ben O’Connor is between the main group and the break, presumably trying to bridge across. The gruppetto, AKA the autobus, has formed back down the road. There are 48 riders in it. Six Lidl-Trek riders are there including Milan.
The gap between break and peloton is 22sec. And the front group is down to three: Wellens, Van Aert, Lutsenko, with Groves dropped.
129km to go: “I think Jonas needs to go hard, and he needs to go early,” remarks Adam Blythe of today’s potential tactics for Visma-Lease A Bike. “They may be trying a similar tactic that worked for Simon Yates at the Giro.”
130km to go: The race has hit the lower slopes of the first climb, the Col du Glandon.
“Jonas has good legs,” says Frans Maassen on TNT of the Visma team leader’s chances. “We’ll see what’s possible.”
He sounds confident, remarks Hannah Walker.
“Yes, I think so. We’ll see what happens. If not [if they can’t catch Pogacar], we have a deserved winner.”
132km to go: The gap grows to 27sec.
133km to go: Indeed we have a five-rider break established. Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates XRG), Wout Van Aert (Visma–Lease A Bike), Alexey Lutsenko (Israel-PremierTech), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Jonas Rutsch (Intermarché-Wanty).
They have an advantage of 22sec but it looks like there is lots of attacking behind.
136km to go: A group of four chasers – Van Aert, Lutsenko, Groves, Rutsch – have nearly caught Wellens now. So it looks like UAE’s strategy is going to pay off.
Briefly there were four, five groups on the road but it now looks like it’s back to three, including Matteo Vercher (Total Energies) on his own, trying to bridge across to the break.
137km to go: “You start the stage with so much money in your pocket,” Rowe says of this brave move by Wellens. “Every move costs money. And this is looking like an expensive move.”
Rowe is making the point that Wellens is strong enough to get in a break later on.
Personally I can see the sense in Wellens ensuring he gets in any breakaway, but I suppose he could easily come up short later on the final climb, too.
138km to go: Girmay, who has endured a difficult race all round, is pictured racing along at the back of the bunch.
