Jonas Vingegaard from Team Jumbo Visma won the 18th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday (July 21, 2022) and extended his lead in the overall standings. Simon Geschke had to give up hope of the mountain jersey early on, which Vingegaard will win if he reaches Paris. In the overall standings, the Dane is now well over three minutes ahead of Tadej Pogacar.
The first attack of the race was made by Vingegaard’s teammate Wout van Aert, who had already secured the green jersey the day before if he made it to Paris. The Belgian was in impressive shape and was even able to keep up on the steep climbs and thus consistently helped shape the race from the front. After a good 100 kilometers, a leading group formed around van Aert, Thibaut Pinot, Daniel Martinez and Carlos Verona, from which Verona later had to be torn a bit and together with Alexey Lutsenko a duo between the three leaders and the meanwhile the rest of the field rushed Pogacar and Vingegaard made.
Vingegaard is waiting after Pogacar’s fall
About 27 kilometers from the finish, Vingegaard stumbled briefly, but caught a possible fall before Pogacar actually fell in a curve on the descent from the Col de Spandelles. The Slovenian was back on the bike quickly and showed no further signs of injury apart from a clearly visible wound on his rear thigh. Vingegaard drove a little slower and waited for his opponent, who thanked him with a handshake. In the final climb, the trio was in the lead and the duo Lutsenko and Verona behind them. Vingegaard and Pogacar started the way up to Hautacam in a smaller group with Geraint Thomas and Vingegaard’s helper Sepp Kuss.
Vingegaard moves away with van Aert and also rides in the mountain jersey
About five kilometers from the finish, Pogacar and Vingegaard reached the front group, which then quickly got smaller. A trio of the two stayed at the front together with van Aert. The Belgian then drove for Vingegaard and the two were actually able to pull away from Pogacar – possibly also because of the consequences of the fall. It was also clear that Geschke would not be able to defend the mountain jersey. Three and a half kilometers from Hautacam, the strong van Aert went out, Vingegaard pulled away and took the stage win, 1:04 minutes ahead of Pogacar.
Geschke used to ride in breakaway groups early on and apparently left a lot of strength – too much strength to keep up with the first mountain classification. It was clear early on that the 36-year-old would not get any more mountain points that day.
19th stage as flat as a board
The 19th stage on Friday covers 188.3 kilometers from Castelnau-Magnoac to Cahors. The section is almost flat as a board and tailor-made for the remaining fast people in the peloton. Unless a breakaway group has made its way, there will be a not too fast mass sprint for the day’s victory in the finale of a slightly uphill straight.