Tour de France: Pogacar wins stage 18, extends overall lead
The HinduTadej Pogacar edged closer to retaining his Tour de France title as he claimed another landmark victory in the 18th stage, a 129.7-km mountain ride from Pau to Luz Ardiden on Thursday. The Slovenian's brutal acceleration 500 metres from the line, at top of Luz Ardiden, could not be matched by his rivals as Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard and Ecuador's Richard Carapaz finished two seconds behind in second and third, respectively. The result was a carbon copy of Wednesday's summit finish at the Col du Portet, where Pogacar had already beaten Vingegaard and Carapaz in the second of his three stage wins in this year's Tour. A cooked Alaphilippe was dropped 3.5km from the top with Guerreiro also being left behind two kilometres further up as French president Emmanuel Macron watched from the Tour director's car.