Stage 18 of the 2024 Tour de France was won in style by Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-dstny) in Barcelonnette, with the Belgian outpacing his fellow breakaway companions Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) to the line. Campenaerts secured his first ever Tour de France stage victory, to add to the Giro d’Italia stage he won in 2021, collaborating well with Vercher and Kwiatkowski as they rode clear in the final 35 kilometres. Having been the most aggressive rider of the 2023 Tour, Campenaerts can now cherish a well-deserved and hard-earned Grande Boucle bouquet. Meanwhile, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) remains in yellow, still 3'11” ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and 5'09” in front of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step).
37 riders in the breakaway
The stage commenced with 145 riders on the start line in Gap, with the teams alert to the high probability of immediate breakaway attempts. That was exactly how the stage started, with the World Champion Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin – Deceuninck) amongst those highly active at the front of the bunch looking to escape. After constant attacks and counter attacks in the opening kilometres Van der Poel was finally not amongst the large group of about 20 riders who went clear at km 26, just before the first climb to the Col du Festre.
Talent in the breakaway
Finally 37 riders made it into the breakaway, namely: Bart Lemmen, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Chris Juul Jensen, Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), Michal Kwiatkowski, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Julien Bernard, Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), Bruno Armirail, Dorian Godon, Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale), Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Jai Hindley, Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Valentin Madouas, Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Richard Carapaz, Ben Healy, Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-dstny), Hugo Houle, Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Alex Aranburu, Oier Lazkano, Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar Team), Clement Champoussin, Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Louis Meintjes, Georg Zimmermann (Intermarche-Wanty), Oscar Onley, Frank Van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Steff Cras, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Jordan Jegat and Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies). Meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates, Soudal Quick-Step, Alpecin - Deceuninck and Astana Qazaqstan were the four teams without representation in the breakaway, all four having already achieved at least one stage win at this year's Tour.
Five categorised climbs
Lazkano was the first over the Col du Festre summit (Cat. 3, km 32.2), as well as the Côte de Corps (Cat. 3, km 57.5) and the Col de Manse (Cat. 3, km 97.3), whilst Onley lost contact with the breakaway due to a series of mechanical problems. Matthews was first in the Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur intermediate sprint (IS, km 84.3), where the breakaway enjoyed a lead of 5'40" over a peloton controlled by UAE Team Emirates. There were numerous attacks at the front of the large breakaway on the Côte de Saint-Apollinaire (Cat. 3, km 121), which was topped first by Johannessen, with the leaders of the stage going over the climb 10'30” ahead of the bunch. On the final categorised climb of the stage it was Kwiatkowski who led the way over the Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées and after the descent a trio formed at the front of the race, 35 km from the finish line, as Vercher and Campenaerts joined the Polish rider of Ineos Grenadiers in the lead.
A thrilling finale
Over a final sector of 25km of rising false flats Kwiatkowski, Vercher and Campenaerts collaborated well, to open up a gap over the chasing group behind them. With 15 kilometres to go the leading trio had managed to extend their advantage over the five closest chasers to over 40”. In the final metres of the stage Campenaerts proved too strong for his rivals and outpaced them to the line for the win.
