A new group has formed, and it features some of those in the previous group – Askey and Abrahamsen. They’re joined by Le Berre, Gate and Vinokurov. They’ve built a lead of 25 seconds, but the action is far from done with the climb starting in about 10km.

Lewis Askey, Jonas Abrahamsen, Marco Haller and Pascal Eenkhoorn managed to get a small gap for a little while, but have since been brought back. These aren’t the kind of riders we imagine will make the definitive break when it forms – there is far too much climbing on the menu for them.

OFFICIAL START

And they’re off! It’s a subdued start, with only a few tentative moves attempted so far – they might be waiting for the first climb of the day, which isn’t for another 20km.

The riders are in the neutralised zone, having set off from the picturesque unofficial start at Voiron. They will be racing for real in about 2km.

With today’s parcours not as severe as the two mighty Alpe d’Huez stages to come, the consensus appears to be that today will likely be one for the breakaway rather than the GC. The stage win specialists will know this, as will those targetting the polka-dot jersey, and therefore the battle to get into the break at the start of the day will be more vital and very competitive.

Tour de France 2026 stage 18 preview – First of three summit finishes to ignite polka dot jersey contest

After yesterday’s thrilling battle in the race for the green jersey, today the attention turns back towards the general classification, as at long last the race heads into the Alps! This competition might seem a lot more closed off, with Tadej Pogačar’s huge lead of 4:32, but you never know what can happen in the final stages of a Tour de France – especially when we know what illness has struck the leader’s team…

Tour de France: Jasper Philipsen wins explosive sprint finish on stage 17 as points classification battle tightens

Hello and welcome to stage 18 of the Tour de France!