Geraint Thomas is closing in on his maiden grand tour and yellow jersey, now only three competitive stages away from sealing the deal, and he now has the added bonus of Chris Froome's commitment to help get over the line.
However he still has Tom Dumoulin lurking at 1min 59sec off the pace and the Dutch rider is almost certain to gain some time during Saturday's time trial, which is firmly his domain.
While Thomas will be looking to keep rivals at bay, Peter Sagan will be chasing the stage win in a sprint in Pau, although he may just be happy to finish after his 'hard crash' yesterday.
Click on stage 18 to refresh the live tracker:
Live Updates
10:37
So, is Chris Froome done in this race or is there something more to come, one last spectacular shot at glory? Froome said yesterday he is here to support Thomas, but Brailsford insisted the four-time winner should never be written off.
10:06
After a ratcheting up of jibes and counter-jibes, Dave Brailsford has finally taken a small step back in his war of words with David Lappartient and the whole of France. Though in fairness it would have difficult to take another step up after his explosive press conference on Monday. Here's the latest:
09:23
Hello and welcome along to our live coverage of stage 18 of the Tour de France, a lumpy but manageable stage for the sprinters from Trie-Sur-Baïse to Pau over 171km. Here's our stage preview:
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