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17 September 2020The 18th stage of the Tour goes to Pole Kwiatkowski in front of teammate from Ineos Carapaz and Belgian van Aert.
175 km from Méribel to La Roche sur Foron, with five mountain grand prix, in order: the Cormet de Roselend (first category, 18.6 km at 6.1%), the Cote de la route des Villes (third category , 3.2 km at 6.6%), the Col de Saisies (second category, 14.6 km at 6.4%), the Col des Aravis (first category, 6.7 km at 7%), the Montée du plateau des Glieres (Hors catégorie, 6 km at 11.2%) before the descent and the last, undemanding bump in sight of the finish line.
Green jersey Sam Bennett and Peter Sagan are among the first to break away with 29 other riders. Sam Bennett is picked up by the yellow jersey group with 142km to go.
The advantage of the 29 treads is 1'27 ". Marc Hirschi first crosses the finish line at the top of the first GPM, behind him Richard Carapaz. Gradually the group of treads falls apart and the five remain to pull: Richard Carapaz, Michal Kwiatkowski, Pello Bilbao, Nicolas Edet and Marc Hirschi who also makes the second GPM his own (for the Swiss also a crash without consequences in the downhill). He still leads the third GPM but Carapaz follows him and takes the lead, leading with Kwiatkowski and Bilbao . The Swiss, however, did not give up and went back to chasing the three fugitives. Meanwhile Nairo Quintana detaches himself from the yellow jersey group. Carapaz first on top of the Col des Aravis, fourth Gpm. At the head of the group battle between the big teams for the positions Rigoberto Uran and Adam Yates in difficulty. Problems also for Porte after a puncture. Carapaz also wins 5th in the out-of-class
GPM Primoz Roglic picks up his pace on the dirt road, but Tadej Pogacar and Migue
Angel Lopez recover immediately.
At 18 km from the finish the two in front Carapaz and Kwiatkowski have a 1'58 "advantage over Pello Bilbao, but the interesting fight is within the yellow jersey group. Richie Porte, Wout Van Aert, and Damiano Caruso are back in the yellow jersey group The group joins the generous Marc Hirschi The protagonists of the final stage are the two team-mates of Ineos who arrive on the catwalk No problem for the leader of the classification Primoz Roglic.