Stage 18: Lourdes - Hautacam,143.2km
The last high-altitude test of the race features the legendary Col d'Aubisque
Iconic finish at Hautacam in stage with two hors category climbs
Jonas Vingegaard in leader's yellow jersey with 2mins 18secs lead over Tadej Pogacar
Britain's Geraint Thomas third overall, 4mins 56secs off lead
Cofidis are driving the pace in order to try and bring Simon Geschke back up to the front. It's the fight for king of the mountain points that has created such an unsettled race so far.
It's 16.4 km at an average gradient of 7.1 % to the top of the legendary Col d'Aubisque.
The lead group of 29 riders, currently led by Wout van Aert, has a gap of 16 seconds to the Geschke group. The peloton is one minute 10 seconds behind.
It's another toasty one in the Pyrenees.
The riders can expect temperatures of around 28°C - and up to 30°C in the valleys. Even in the passes it could be as warm as 24°C.
We're just about to start the first climb of the day on the Col d'Aubisque!
Wout van Aert, already assured of the green jersey, prevails in the intermediate sprint at Laruns to collect another 20 points. He's just in one of those moods today.
Britain's Geraint Thomas produced a solid ride yesterday to open up a gap of almost three minutes to Nairo Quintana and stay on course for a podium place in Paris.
While Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar are clearly in a class of their own, Thomas has so far proven himself as by far the best of the rest.
One more big day to get through. Savage is about right.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Are we going to have some order in this stage at any point, or is it just going to be crazy until the very end? It's very in keeping with the rest of this Tour, to be fair.
There's still over 30 riders at the front but only a 22-second gap to the peloton who are refusing to let this go.
Image source, Getty ImagesOf course, it's never all about what happens at the very front of the race.
There were heroics right at the very back of the field yesterday, as Fabio Jakobsen left it all on the road to make the time cut by just 15 seconds at Peyragudes.
With the seconds ticking away, the Dutchman was cheered on by his team-mates from the top of the gruelling final ramp at Altiport 007 and collapsed into the barrier after securing his place on the start line for stage 18.
The Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider had to be left by his team-mates on the final climb due to fears they would also miss the cut, but he has kept his hopes of reaching Paris alive for another day.
Image source, Getty ImagesWout van Aert has made it back on to the front group which is now up to 36 riders...
Oh dear!
Jack Bauer is left trapped behind a team car by a press motorbike which closes the space to his left - and he's left with nowhere to go but into the back of the car.
As you can imagine, he's not happy about that at all. But thankfully he's back up and seems to be OK. No awareness from the motorbike whatsoever there. Ridiculous.
It's chaos at the front. There are 27 riders battling it out to make the decisive break around 30 seconds ahead of the peloton. Daniel Martinez of Ineos Grenadiers is among the lead group, which is without Simon Geschke.
Out the back of the peloton, Mikkel Bjerg, who put in a huge effort for UAE Team Emirates and Tadej Pogacar yesterday, is already struggling to hang on to the peloton.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Wout van Aert guaranteed victory in the points competition yesterday, so long as he can reach Paris, but the Polka Dot jersey is still very much up for grabs.
Simon Geschke leads the king of the mountains classification with 64 points, ahead of race leader Jonas Vingegaard (52 points) and Tadej Pogacar (46 points).
With a maximum of 50 points available today, there are 16 riders who could mathematically replace Geschke in top spot. One to keep an eye on.
While he's not in yellow, Pogacar has a commanding lead of over 30 minutes to Tom Pidcock in the best young rider competition.
Image source, Getty ImagesJust looking at today's climbs has left me exhausted. What a day we could have ahead of us at the 2022 Tour de France.
We've arrived at the final high-altitude test of the race. The legendary Col d'Aubisque is one of two hors categorie (HC) ascents, with the Col de Spandelles arriving before the iconic finish at Hautacam.
Luc Leblanc famously held off Miguel Indurain on the ascent to the ski resort in 1994, and this year's stage could prove to be another fascinating battle between the main GC riders.
Image source, Getty ImagesChris Froome, Damiano Caruso and Imanol Erviti have not started today after returning positive tests for Covid-19.
Froome said he is "really disappointed" following the news after he had "found his legs again" over the course of this year's Tour.
It leaves 140 riders in the race with four days remaining.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Saying that, Wout van Aert has gone again...
The leading group is brought back by a chasing pack, featuring the green jersey, and Van Aert counters immediately.
He's reeled back in, though, and it's not long before the peloton is able to latch back on to that front bunch. All together again!
Something we perhaps didn't expect to see today, but probably should have, is Wout van Aert going off from the start.
Wout's going to Wout. He's been trying to put on a show on Belgium’s national day.
It didn't stick, however, and we currently have a group of six up the road which features Christophe Laporte, Andreas Leknessund, Stan De Wulf, Stefan Bissegger, Florian Vermeersch and Michael Matthews.
This is what it all means for the overall standings:
The efforts of Tadej Pogacar and UAE Team Emirates yesterday were made all the more impressive by the fact that prior to stage 17 they were reduced to a four-man squad.
Rafal Majka was unable to start after suffering a thigh injury on stage 16, on a day when an unwell Marc Soler failed to make the time cut.
Brandon McNulty in particular put in a devastating ride after a huge turn from Mikkel Bjerg, eventually leaving Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard as the only remaining riders at the front.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Yes, Tadej Pogacar edged out Jonas Vingegaard in an uphill sprint to win stage 17 of the Tour de France - but he was ultimately unable to break the race leader on an epic mountain stage to Peyragudes.
Defending champion Pogacar cut Vingegaard's overall lead by four bonus seconds, with the Dane now leading by two minutes and 18 seconds.
Britain's Geraint Thomas finished fourth, over two minutes behind the front three which also included Pogacar's team-mate Brandon McNulty, to stay third overall and tighten his grip on a podium place.
Image source, Getty ImagesYesterday, Tadej Pogacar won the Peyragudes battle against Jonas Vingegaard - but is Vingegaard set to win the war?
The Dane still holds a healthy advantage over the defending champion before the riders take on the final mountain challenge of this year's Tour today.
Realistically, this is the last day for Pogacar to make up significant ground on the race leader and set up a tense time trial on Saturday.
Expect the unexpected.
Image source, Getty Images