He crowned the breakaway before the Alps! In a thrilling finish Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) emerged victorious Thursday in stage 18 of the Tour de France 2024, contested between Gap and Barcelonnette over 179.5 kilometers. Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) held the lead of the race without setbacks.
The Belgian, who achieved his 12th victory as a pro, was the best of a very long breakaway, beating Frenchman Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) and Polish Michal Kwiatkowski (INEOS Grenadiers), who finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
The favorites saved their strength for the tough alpine stages to come and entered the peloton more than thirteen minutes behind the breakaway. The bunch was led by South African Ryan Gibbons (Lidl – Trek).
The first half of the day was again frenetic until the breakaway of the day was formed with 33 riders with names of very high caliber among which were some of the best stage-hunters in the world.
Once again, Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz was one of the big movers of the day alongside Wout van Aert and Jay Hindley. Then the bunch relaxed and let the large breakaway build up a big lead.
On the last mountain pass of the third category, Michal Kwiatkowski launched an attack to which no one responded immediately, but on the descent he was joined by Victor Campenaerts and Mattéo Vercher, who in the end played for the stage victory.
The three of them relieved each other until the end, in a sprint where Campenaerts won quite clearly over his two companions. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain – Victorious) was the best Colombian of the day in 60th position, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was 86th at 14:50 and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan Team) was 131st at 18:37 from the winner.
The French round will continue this Friday with stage 19, a hilly day of 144.6 kilometers between Embrun and Isola 2000, which includes three categorized climbs and an uphill finish.
Tour de France (2.UWT)
Results Stage 18 | Gap – Barcelonnette (179, 5km)
| 1 | CAMPENAERTS Victor | Lotto Dstny | 4:10:20 |
| 2 | VERCHER Mattéo | TotalEnergies | ,, |
| 3 | KWIATKOWSKI Michał | INEOS Grenadiers | ,, |
| 4 | SKUJIŅŠ Toms | Lidl – Trek | 0:22 |
| 5 | LAZKANO Oier | Movistar Team | ,, |
| 6 | LEMMEN Bart | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | ,, |
| 7 | NEILANDS Krists | Israel – Premier Tech | ,, |
| 8 | HINDLEY Jai | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe | ,, |
| 9 | VAN AERT Wout | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 0:37 |
| 10 | MATTHEWS Michael | Team Jayco AlUla | ,, |
Ranking General
| 1 | POGAČAR Tadej | UAE Team Emirates | 74:45:27 |
| 2 | VINGEGAARD Jonas | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 3:11 |
| 3 | EVENEPOEL Remco | Soudal Quick-Step | 5:09 |
| 4 | ALMEIDA João | UAE Team Emirates | 12:57 |
| 5 | LANDA Mikel | Soudal Quick-Step | 13:24 |
| 6 | RODRÍGUEZ Carlos | INEOS Grenadiers | 13:30 |
| 7 | YATES Adam | UAE Team Emirates | 15:41 |
| 8 | CICCONE Giulio | Lidl – Trek | 17:51 |
| 9 | GEE Derek | Israel – Premier Tech | 18:15 |
| 10 | BUITRAGO Santiago | Bahrain – Victorious | 18:35 |
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico