Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) won the stage to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne solo after attacking on the descent of the Col du Glandon with 30km remaining to the finish including the category 2 climb of Lacets de Montvernier. Bardet held on to win by 33 seconds from Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar) to make it a 1-2 for France. Winner Anacona (Movistar Team) was third leading a bunch of four riders to the finish.
There was no change in the overall lead, Chris Froome still leads Nairo Quintana by 3:10 and Alejandro Valverde by 4:09 after a relatively uneventful stage save for some attacks on the Col du Glandon, the first 6 riders overall all finished in the same group. Time is running out for Nairo Quintana to reduce the lead of Chris Froome with only two mountain stages and summit finishes remaining in the 2015 Tour de France.
In the classifications Nairo Quintana still leads the young riders, Joaquim Rodríguez wears the polka dot jersey, Peter Sagan leads the points classification and Movistar lead the teams classification. Stage 18 video highlights below.
Video Highlights
Summary – Stage 18 (Gap > Saint-Jean-de… by tourdefrance_en
Results
Top 50 Stage 18 Gap – Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne 186.5km
| Place | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 5:03:40 |
| 2 | Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar | 0:00:33 |
| 3 | Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team | 0:00:59 |
| 4 | Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing | |
| 5 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | |
| 6 | Serge Pauwels (Bel) MTN – Qhubeka | 0:01:01 |
| 7 | Cyril Gautier (Fra) Team Europcar | 0:01:50 |
| 8 | Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team | |
| 9 | Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team | 0:01:55 |
| 10 | Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Alpecin | 0:03:02 |
| 11 | Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo | |
| 12 | Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky | |
| 13 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | |
| 14 | Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky | |
| 15 | Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo | |
| 16 | Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling | |
| 17 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team | |
| 18 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team | |
| 19 | Michele Scarponi (Ita) Astana Pro Team | |
| 20 | Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team | 0:03:21 |
| 21 | Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing | |
| 22 | Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Lampre-Merida | 0:05:12 |
| 23 | Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo | 0:05:33 |
| 24 | Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana Pro Team | 0:06:32 |
| 25 | Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:06:45 |
| 26 | Leopold Konig (Cze) Team Sky | 0:06:56 |
| 27 | Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka | 0:08:00 |
| 28 | Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team | 0:08:32 |
| 29 | Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:09:00 |
| 30 | Jan Barta (Cze) Bora-Argon 18 | 0:09:19 |
| 31 | Florian Vachon (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement | |
| 32 | Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar | |
| 33 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo | 0:09:22 |
| 34 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo | 0:11:03 |
| 35 | Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha | 0:14:26 |
| 36 | Jan Bakelants (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:14:51 |
| 37 | Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team | |
| 38 | Nelson Oliveira (Por) Lampre-Merida | |
| 39 | Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement | 0:15:41 |
| 40 | Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky | |
| 41 | Wouter Poels (Ned) Team Sky | |
| 42 | Gorka Izagirre (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:16:05 |
| 43 | Stef Clement (Ned) IAM Cycling | 0:16:09 |
| 44 | Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr | 0:16:12 |
| 45 | Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits | 0:16:56 |
| 46 | Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team | 0:17:11 |
| 47 | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) MTN – Qhubeka | 0:17:28 |
| 48 | Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 0:18:33 |
| 49 | Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team | 0:18:44 |
| 50 | Georg Preidler (Aut) Team Giant-Alpecin |
Top 20 General Classification Tour de France after Stage 18
| Place | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky | 74:13:31 |
| 2 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team | 0:03:10 |
| 3 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:04:09 |
| 4 | Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky | 0:06:34 |
| 5 | Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo | 0:06:40 |
| 6 | Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo | 0:07:39 |
| 7 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team | 0:08:04 |
| 8 | Mathias Frank (Swi) IAM Cycling | 0:08:47 |
| 9 | Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek Factory Racing | 0:12:06 |
| 10 | Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:12:52 |
| 11 | Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Alpecin | 0:13:08 |
| 12 | Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team | 0:15:18 |
| 13 | Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar | 0:16:02 |
| 14 | Serge Pauwels (Bel) MTN – Qhubeka | 0:18:06 |
| 15 | Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team | 0:18:11 |
| 16 | Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ.fr | 0:39:24 |
| 17 | Jarlinson Pantano (Col) IAM Cycling | 0:45:40 |
| 18 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | 0:47:22 |
| 19 | Mikael Cherel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:48:55 |
| 20 | Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff-Saxo | 0:50:54 |
Stage 19 is the penultimate mountain stage of the 2015 Tour de France. The stage starts at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and finishes at La Touissure 138km later. There are four big mountain climbs, first up the category 1 Col du Chaussy, then the HC Col du Glandon for the second time in the week and the Croix de Fer and then the Col du Mollard and finishing on a summit finish at La Touissure.
Tour de France Stage report by TBL – The Bike Lane
