That’s it from me. Stick around on the site for the stage report and video highlights, and come along tomorrow for stage 19 from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire. Bye!
Updated
Stage 18 top five
1 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 05:03:40
2 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar +33
3 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team +59
4 Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing +59
5 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team +59
General classification after stage 18
Bardet repeated his trick from the Dauphiné, breaking well to seal an impressive solo win. That victory is enough to lift him up into the top ten in the overall standings and makes him the highest Frenchman in the GC, above Warren Barguil:
1 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 74:13:31
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team +03:10
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team +04:09
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky +06:34
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo +06:40
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo +07:39
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team +08:04
8 Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling +08:47
9 Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing +12:06
10 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale +13:02
AG2R’s Romain Bardet after winning stage 18: “We took it on in the Dauphiné so we knew the route. It was amazing at the end of the route knowing it was downhill. It was like being in a football stadium, there was that much noise. I felt really well supported today.”
The yellow jersey group come in shortly afterwards, reduced down to its core parts: Nibali, Froome, Quintana, Contador, Valverde, plus a couple of domestiques, stuck together virtually from start to finish like a forced family gathering. They pass the line as one and there will no change at the top of the GC.
Pierre Rolland comes in half a minute behind his compatriot to complete a French one-two. Winner Anacona takes third.
Romain Bardet wins stage 18!
Bardet goes under the flamme rouge, he’s almost home. He swings into the fan-lined finish straight and the French fans shake their fists in delight. He grabs his helmet as he crosses the line, as if he can’t believe what he has achieved.
Updated
Romain Bardet peels off his gloves and throws them away. The 24-year-old made a bold move attacking from so far out with such a testing climb in his way but he has timed his attack to perfection. His gap to Rolland remains more than 40sec and this victory is surely his, his first Tour de France stage.
Bardet looks so comfortably riding downhill, brushing every kerb as he glides towards the flat finish. The motorbike mounted cameraman can barely keep up and neither can Rolland, still 45sec behind with only 3km remaining.
5km to go
Bardet attacks the descent using all his skill to commit to each corner, and his lead is growing! He has nearly a minute over Pierre Rolland, his nearest challenger. And after reaching that peak first:
#TDF2015 Equal points for Joaqum Rodriguez and Romain Bardet in polka dot classification.
— Katusha Team (@katushacycling) July 23, 2015
Nibali hits the front of the yellow jersey group and attacks, attempting to put his GC rivals in difficulty, but Froome, Quintana and Contador are all able to stay with him. Only Nibali’s Astana team-mate, Scarponi, is made to suffer from that attack.
10km to go
Bardet has squeezed out a couple more seconds from that climb to give him a 43sec advantage over the chasers as they begin the final 10km.
Updated
A little lower down the stunning Lacets de Montvernier, Tinkoff-Saxo hit the front of the yellow jersey group. Majka leads with Contador on his shoulder, and he glances back to check his team-mate is still near. Behind them, Sky’s Konig and Thomas ride close to Froome.
Pierre Rolland tags on to the back of his young Europcar team-mate, Cyril Gautier, as they chase Bardet ahead. The French solo leader is working his way up, through the snaking hairpin turns on after another with a lead of around 40sec.
Bardet swings his bike round a tight left-hand corner and approaches the start of the final climb. In the village below, amongst thousands of local fans Bob Jungels and Cyril Gautier break clear of the rest of the chasing pack and try to close the gap.
20km to go
AG2R’s Bardet is powering on for the stage win. If he is going to do it, he will have climb the Lacets de Montvernier all on his own without getting caught by the chasing group 38sec behind. So tight and dangerous is the section of switchbacks, fans are not allowed to line the road on the main part of the ascent.
The eight riders between Bardet (38sec ahead) and the yellow jersey group (2min 13sec behind) are: Fuglsang, Anacona, Caruso, Rolland, Gautier, Jungels, Talansky and Pauwels. Joaquim Rodriguez has dropped back into the main pack behind Froome, which is being led by Sky’s Konig and Thomas. Roche has dropped off the pace.
Updated
So the yellow jersey group has swelled again with all the big GC names enrolled. They are 2min 55sec down on the solo leader, Bardet, with 23km remaining. The Frenchman is sweeping down this descent with plenty of aggression. He is heading towards the start of the final climb of the day and it’s a beauty, the Lacets de Montvernier.
Get ready for the Lacets de Montvernier: 18 hairpin bends, or shoelaces, that are about to animate the #TDF2015 pic.twitter.com/cJDsz8ciNt
— Felix Lowe (@saddleblaze) July 23, 2015
Contador’s attack is short-lived. Froome and the rest of the yellow jersey group catch him, along with Frank, Barguil and Gesink:
Le groupe #MaillotJaune a repris le groupe Contador / The #YellowJersey group joined the Contador group. #TDF2015 pic.twitter.com/APu3p9RFgy
— Le Tour de France (@letour) July 23, 2015
Bardet descends with skill, sweeping from side to side on the narrow road. He’s opened up a lead of 20sec from the group behind.
While the yellow jersey group attacked each other, Romain Bardet had driven clear off the front of the breakaway. He claims the maximum King of the Mountain points (25 on offer) just in front of Anacona before shaking off the Movistar rider at the start of the descent. Behind them the other 9 are chasing, led by Bob Jungels.
Nibali goes again! He is desperate to be the first in the yellow jersey group to start the descent towards Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Quintana goes with him, as does Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome, but Valverde is struggling to keep up as the gradient increases.
Nibali attacks, but Valverde reacts instantly to bridge the gap to the Italian and when Nibali looks back, he sees Froome, Quintana and the rest on his wheel.
Out of nowhere Fuglsang suddenly crashes down onto the road. There didn’t seem to be any contact with another rider but I would need to see it again. He picks himself up and receives some attention before continuing.
“Contador’s attack is really gutsy,especially after his fall yesterday,” emails James Cavell. “It’s the first time any serious threat to the podium has been able to ride away from the all dominating Sky Mountain Train. I’d love to see him do a ‘Landis 2007’ now, but of course that can’t and won’t happen. This race needs something interesting to happen, something more interesting than one team having 6 riders riding tempo hour after hour. It reminds me of being on a group training ride, only without the fresh air and fitness benefits.”
Alberto Contador rides clear of Froome and the rest. He swings up a left hander to see Warren Barguil, Mathias Frank and Robert Gesink. He takes a breath and then kicks on again, hitting the front of the trio who tag on to his wheel. They are 2min 29sec from the 11-strong pack of leaders, and already 30sec clear of the yellow jersey group.
Nicolas Roche grits his teeth and attacks up the Glandon at the front of the yellow jersey group. Suddenly Contador bursts away on the outside. Roche glances up and puffs out his cheeks. With 45km to go Team Sky decide to let him go, and likewise Nibali, Quintana and Valverde leave the Spanish rider to it.
The 11-rider breakaway are timed at 3min 27sec ahead of the yellow jersey group, which is made up of: Froome, Quintana, Valverde, Thomas, Contador, Gesink, Nibali, Mollema, Barguil, Sanchez, Kreuziger, Cherel, Rogers, Roche, Majka, Porte, Oliveira, Scarponi, Wyss, Poels, Perichon, Konig and Matthews.
Updated
Simon Yates of Orica GreenEdge has bridged the gap to the leaders to make a pack of 12 at the front. The leaders are 4min 11sec from the Team Sky-led yellow jersey group, which contains Quintana, Froome, Contador and the rest of the top GC riders.
As the breakaway chug up the long ascent in the sunshine with 12km still to go to the summit, I’ll take this moment to point you towards our very snazzy interactive guide to the iconic Alpe d’Huez climb, which the riders take on at the climax to stage 20. Enjoy.
Updated
Guatier is also there amongst the leading group, making 11 riders out in the breakaway. They’ve upped their pace to keep the peloton at arm’s length (if your arm is 2min 38sec long). Here’s a nice example of Sky’s excitable Twitter vibe, which I am enjoying:
We're onto the mighty Col du Glandon - all 21.7km of it! @TeamSky are setting a tempo in the peloton - @nicholasroche on the front #TDF2015
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) July 23, 2015
I always like these graphics from the Tour’s data arm. Thomas De Gendt has stretched out the bunch more than any other rider on route to the Col du Glandon:
Time spent at the front of the race from 60 to 120km mark #TDFdata #TDF2015 pic.twitter.com/J5uiDTODM1
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 23, 2015
The majority of original escapees hold up their hands and give up the chase. Thomas De Gendt and Dan Martin are among those to slope back into the peloton. Out in front are 10 riders: Gesink, Bardet, Rolland, Pauwels, Pinot, Fuglsang, Rodriguez, Jungels, Caruso, and Anacona.
My colleague has nudged me in the direction of this tweet. This is what is to come after descending from the Glandon – 18 switchbacks packed into a 3.4km ascent makes for a beautiful photo:
What a view! Lacets de montvernier.. pic.twitter.com/kyHbX9Xgd1
— pgoding (@pgoding) July 23, 2015
Updated
There are 60 very tough kilometres to go and De Gendt has been caught by the chasing group. The hunters have become the hunted, however, with the peloton edging closer to that leading pack – the gap is down to 2min 10sec.
Updated
The peloton have lifted the pace in comparison to the breakaway at the start of this long climb. Lotto Soudal, by the way, win the prize for most informative team on Twitter. Team Sky win the prize for most excitable: they love an exclamation mark or three. Only full stops at Lotto.
#TDF2015 The pace is high in the peloton, Giant - Alpecin and Lotto NL ride at the head. They follow at 2'32" of @DeGendtThomas.
— Lotto Soudal (@Lotto_Soudal) July 23, 2015
De Gendt has a 20sec lead from the chasing pack and 2min 38sec from the peloton. That gap to the main bunch has closed noticeably in the past 10 minutes. He is going to be huffing and puffing soon as the Glandon starts to get steep.
The little pack chase Thomas De Gendt a few seconds clear off the front. They dip down a small decline before taking on the Col du Glandon. The riders chasing the Belgian in full: Rodriguez, Voeckler, Plaza, Talansky, Martin, Fuglsang, Bakelants, Anacona, Caruso and Barta.
@TJHolland1134 @LawrenceOstlere 1928: 121 abandonments out of 162 riders. In 1919, 59 of 69 riders abandoned (highest percentage: 86%).
— Matt L (@parrais) July 23, 2015
@TJHolland1134 @LawrenceOstlere 1998 stands out in modern times; 93 riders abandoned/withdrawn/DQed (due to the Festina scandal) out of 189.
— Matt L (@parrais) July 23, 2015
De Gendt’s pack of 11 riders has opened up a 28sec lead from the chasing group (what was left of the original early breakaway). Irish rider Dan Martin is up among the leaders. The peloton containing Froome, Quintana and company is a further 3min 11sec back from the chasers.
Updated
The polka dot jersey of Rodriguez joins Voeckler and De Gendt at the front, as does Astana rider Jakob Fuglsang and yesterday’s runner-up, the American Andrew Talansky.
Here’s my daily message from Thibaut Pinot’s biggest fan:
@LawrenceOstlere Pinot! Thrilling heroics! Let's try this again!
— MaliciousA (@MaliciousA) July 23, 2015
De Gendt has made a few early breakaways in the Tour, though they were mainly in the opening week or two. Tommy Voeckler is chasing him hard with a handful of other riders in tow.
Ah – you can near enough ignore that last post as the eight escapees are quickly reeled back in. An intermediate sprint point approaches, which is of no relevance to anyone given Sagan and Greipel’s position in a group of stragglers a minute or so behind the peloton. Nevertheless, Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal picks this moment to stream clear at the front.
Tess Holland poses this teaser:
@LawrenceOstlere By my count, 36 abandons, with two harsh days left. What year holds the record for most abandons?
— Tess Holland (@TJHolland1134) July 23, 2015
The breakaway has split. A predominantly French pack of eight accelerate away with Bardet, Rolland, and Riblon leading the charge. Bakelants, Gautier, stage 16 winner Plaza, Anacona and Preidler are the others.
The breakaway group reaches the foot of the descent but the road doesn’t flatten for long, instantly cranking up towards the towering Col du Glandon. It is the day’s only hors catégorie climb, 1,924m at its peak. The climb is officially 21.7km long but there’s a 10km uphill drag just to reach that point.
La tête dans les nuages / High in the sky! 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ ☁ 🗻 🗻 🗻 🗻 #TDF2015 pic.twitter.com/w3GeizEyuQ
— Le Tour de France (@letour) July 23, 2015
As a quick aside here’s a shameless plea to sponsor our web editor, James Dart, before he takes on the Prudential RideLondon 100 to raise money for Youth Sport Trust: “This is an important cause and I wanted to put my opportunity to ride in the event to some good use. I’ll likely be the lanterne rouge, but please don’t let that put you off sponsoring me. I would obviously be hugely grateful for any money that I can raise.” Go on, sponsor him here.
This is quite a nice graphic, except that around 6km passed by the time the Tour’s official twitter feed nailed down the precise emoticons:
🏁 <-- 100 km --> 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚗 <- 3'53'' -> 🚗 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚴 🚗 #TDF2015
— Le Tour de France (@letour) July 23, 2015
The breakaway descends towards La Romanche river below, with a 3min 43sec lead from the peloton.
“Hello Lawrence,” emails Peter Redahan. “Normally when somebody uses the phrase ‘that suits me’ in a sentence it isn’t normally followed with the words ‘very hard’. Normally when I say ‘that suits me’, I find the task I am talking about very easy to do. Quintana just proves what most people think about professional cyclists – they are gluttons for punishment.”
Rodriguez makes it five out of five, grabbing the King of the Mountains points on offer atop the Col de la Morte like the four climbs before. The Katusha rider was barely challenged. He is wearing the polka dot jersey today because Chris Froome wears yellow, but will lay genuine claim to it tomorrow.
It is hard to tell on this sharp upslope whether the peloton has increased the pace or the breakaway has slowed a little, but the gap between the two is certainly falling. The 29 up front have an advantage of 3min 48sec.
Updated
Australian rider Mark Renshaw, a very useful lead-out man for Mark Cavendish, has abandoned the Tour.
Renshaw (EQS) abandons @letour. That is a total of 37 riders who have pulled out of #TDF2015 since @LeTourUtrecht.
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 23, 2015
105km to go and the leading bunch climbs along the intimidatingly named Col de la Morte. It is only a 3km ascent but is pretty steep at 8.4%. All of the overall top ten are tucked safely in the peloton.
There is plenty of opportunity in the latter part of this stage for someone like Nairo Quintana to mount an attack against Chris Froome, and Quintana certainly had some fighting talk following yesterday’s stage: “Today I was almost 100 per cent. We have not got to Froome but we have weakened Sky and now come the more serious stages, which favour me, with longer climbs and tougher finishes where we can try to scratch back some time.
“Tomorrow’s stage will be very complicated and the finish in La Toussuire is a course that suits me, it is all day up and down, with major climbs that are very hard and very long. Alpe d’Huez is a fairly long climb and the slope suits my abilities. There is terrain to bring the battle.”
Updated
Team Sky are back on the front of the peloton and have upped the pace a touch, with the gap to the 29 leaders falling to less than five minutes.
Here are the breakaway names in full: Fuglsang (Astana), Bardet, Bakelants & Riblon (AG2R), Pinot (FDJ), Kreuziger & Rogers (Tinkoff), Castroviejo & Anacona (Movistar), Caruso & Dennis (BMC), De Gendt (Lotto-S), Preidler (Giant), Rodriguez (Katusha), Matthews & Yates (Orica), Rolland, Gautier, Sicard & Voeckler (Europcar), Arredondo & Jungels (Trek), Plaza (Lampre), Talansky, Hesjedal & Martin (Cannondale), Clement (IAM), Barta (Bora), Pauwels (MTN).
“107kph while eating is nothing!” laughs James Davison. “I remember my mom devouring an apple at 110mph when I was little. Mind you she was behind the wheel of a groovy 70s purple Reliant Scimitar at the time.”
Joaquim Rodriguez reaches the fourth peak of the day, Col de Malissol, before the rest. That completes a clean sweep of stage 18 King of the Mountains wins so far for the Spaniard and he has overtaken Chris Froome at the top of the polka dot jersey standings. MTN-Qhubeka rider Serge Pauwels, who has consistently finished just behind Rodriguez today, and has climbed to third in the KoM race.
Those riders who streamed clear, headed by Rodriguez, have all been pulled back in by the rest of the breakaway.
Team Sky have relinquished control of the main peloton as Giant-Alpecin and Trek take over. The gap from this group, which contains Quintana, Froome and the rest of the top-ten GC riders, to the leaders is 5min 41sec, up a little from the last reading.
“Lawrence,” Keith Hardy emails, “there is some top speed willy-waving on Mark Cavendish’s twitter account. He posts 101km/h, Michal Kwiatkowski beats him with a 102.2 then Mark Renshaw posts a 107km/h and claims he was eating at the time!”
With that, Rodriguez has kicked away a little, eyes widening at the sight of the next KoM points on offer, at the summit of the Col de Malissol. Fuglsang, De Gendt, Clement, Voeckler and Pauwels decide to join the man they call ‘El Purito’.
Just as Dennis eyes the top of the Côte de la Mure he is swallowed up by the breakaway he had ditched a few minutes before. It’s right on cue for Joaquim Rodriguez: the Spaniard passes Dennis to reach the top first and claim two more King of the Mountains points. Rodriguez now has the same number of points as Chris Froome (61).
And this is just part of what Cav has to look forward to, the Lacets de Montvernier which precede the finish at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne:
It's back! Montvernier, 1 of the world's most striking climbs! CAN'T WAIT to see the riders hit this today! #TDF2015 pic.twitter.com/L1ZrIFMnpm
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) July 23, 2015
Here is a sprinter’s take on the Alps:
Uphill start... Also looks like today's @letour profile has chicken pox... I'm sick of red spots. So so sick of them. pic.twitter.com/bsmlbCvffM
— Mark Cavendish (@MarkCavendish) July 23, 2015
We have a soloist. Rohan Dennis, the Australian BMC domestique, breaks clear as the breakaway closes in on the Côte de la Mure summit. Given Van Garderen’s abandonment yesterday, BMC’s support acts now have a little more freedom to go for stage wins.
Hey stats fans, here’s a couple of Le Tour tweets that have caught my eye. From stage 17, Geschke going for the biggest moment of his life on a treacherous descent at 73km/hr; plus some key numbers from the Tour so far:
#icymi - Geschke's speed as he ascended, and descended Col d'Allos to win Stage 17 in Pra Loup. #TDF2015 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/cCHHzd5fKQ
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 23, 2015
Race stats ahead of stage 18 today from Gap to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. #TDFdata #TDF2015 pic.twitter.com/DJYyYGSf7u
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 23, 2015
Giant-Alpecin, buoyant the back of yesterday’s stage victory, head to the front of the peloton to push things along. Team Sky have been on the nose thus far as a five minute gap has opened up to the leaders. The runaway 29 are nearing the start of a short climb to the summit of Côte de la Mure with around 130km remaining.
Regarding the lovely Rampe du Motty, Boris Starling has got me chuckling to myself like a weirdo with this email: “I really hope that Britain’s premier sheepskin-clad commentator was somewhere on the hillside named after him, chuckling to himself as the peloton went past. ‘There’s Chris Froome, heh heh [insert random and tangentially relevant stat], there’s the slight figure of Nairo Quintaaaaana’, etc etc.”
Illness also ended Tejay van Garderen’s Tour yesterday. The BMC rider, who had started the day third overall, was clearly devastated, wiping away tears as he left his bike and walked back to the team car. After the stage he said: “Straight away from the start, I knew this wasn’t good, and hopefully I could just hide and ride into it for a few kilometres and I would feel better but those sensations never came.
“Oh man, it is hugely disappointing. To be fighting for a podium in the Tour de France and then the next day you are sitting in a car, it was hard. It was hard to look my teammates in the eyes, hard to call my wife and explain to her what was going on. It was a lot of emotions. It almost feels like I want to just disappear right now.”
The young South African rider for MTN-Qhubeka, Louis Meintjes, will not be completing his Tour de France debut after suffering an illness, but I’m sure we will be seeing much more of him in the future:
We are sad to announce, @LouisMeintjes will abandon @letour today due to illness. Rider health is our 1st priority. pic.twitter.com/TIDMEvAUpp
— Team MTN-Qhubeka (@TeamMTNQhubeka) July 23, 2015
The breakaway is working at a totally different pace to the main peloton and has quickly opened up a lead of more than five minutes. Team Sky haven’t sent anyone to join the breakaway today, but two each of Quintana’s Movistar team-mates and Contador’s Tinkoff-Saxos are in attendance near the front. And, get this: Peter Sagan has not joined the breakaway. Famously a lover of almost winning stages, he seems content to bob along with the peloton for now.
At the first of seven peaks today, the category two Col Bayard, Joaquim Rodriguez was up there first to claim the maximum 5 points. The Spaniard is now only four points behind Chris Froome in the race to be the King of the Mountains... and that deficit has been cut again after Rodriguez just reached the beautifully named Rampe du Motty summit to bag two more points (Motty is a category three ascent, hence less points on offer). It sounds a lot more friendly than the Col de la Morte still to come.
The riders are already through 40km and a 29-man breakaway has formed. It carries plenty of strength and includes Bardet, Bakelants, Pinot, Rodriguez, Talansky, Rolland and Pauwels among others. They are 4min away from the peloton containing Froome and the main yellow jersey contenders, and that gap is steadily increasing.
Stage 18 is a day for getting dizzy in the Alps. The peloton immediately heads up the Col Bayard, the start of a series of five short but steep climbs which pepper the first half of the stage. Before the finish come two totally different but equally compelling ascents. The first is the Col du Glandon, a Tour de France favourite: the summit stands 1,924m high and requires an energy-sapping 21km drag to get there. Down the other side awaits the Lacets de Montvernier, 18 hairpin turns carved into the mountainside to make heads spin. The climb is less than 4km but the twisting laces are packed together and regularly exceed 10% gradient. Up and down, round and round, there are plenty of opportunities for a shuffle of the pack along today’s Alpine route.
Updated
Classifications before stage 18
Chris Froome’s three minute advantage remains intact after mirroring Nairo Quintana’s every move yesterday. The green jersey is virtually done and dusted with Peter Sagan close to denying organisers their wish (they reformatted the points for pure sprinters like Greipel to stand a better chance), and winning his fourth green jersey in succession. The King of the Mountains however is still up for grabs, and plenty of points are on offer in stage 18. Here are your headline acts:
Yellow jersey
1. Chris Froome (Sky) 69:06:49
2. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) +3:10
3. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) +4:09
4. Geraint Thomas (Sky) +6:34
5. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) +6:40
6. Robert Gesink (LottoNL) +7:39
7. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) +8:04
8. Mathias Frank (IAM) +8:47
Green jersey
1 Peter Sagan 420 points
2 Andre Greipel 316
3 John Degenkolb 281
Polka dot jersey
1 Chris Froome 61 points
2 Joaquim Rodriguez 52
3 Jokob Fulgsang 41
4 Serge Pauwels 40
5 Richie Porte 40
Stage 18: Gap to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (186.5km)
Serious Alpine stuff, with one little climb after another as the route heads north, before the ascent of the Col du Glandon, with the summit a tantalising 40km from the finish.
The Glandon is a 22km monster, and the 19km descent is followed by a 3km legbreaker which is new to the Tour, de Montvernier. Depending on how much control is being maintained by the race leader’s team, a favourite who is confident of his descending skill might well be tempted to gamble all or nothing here; Nibali or Contador, or an outsider like Bardet.
Read more from our stage-by-stage guide.
