Victor Campenaerts posted the biggest win of his career Thursday as he claimed the tough and hilly 18th stage of the Tour de France following a three-up sprint.
Two-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) kept the race leaders yellow jersey as the top of the overall standings remained unchanged with just three days of racing left.
Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) spent most of the day at the front and jumped away from a breakaway group some 35 kilometres from the finish together with Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) and former world champion Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers).
Campenaerts, who won a stage at the 2021 Giro dItalia, patiently waited behind his rivals in the last kilometre and did not panic when Vercher attacked. He stayed in the wheel of Kwiatkowski, then launched his sprint from behind.
The Lotto Dstny rider celebrated his win with his partner and baby on a video call straight after the finish.
After the [spring] classics, I had a very difficult time, Campenaerts said, holding back tears. I had a verbal agreement with the team about extending the contract and I got ignored for a long time and it was really difficult. I was on a long altitude camp but my girlfriend was there and she supported me every day, highly pregnant, and I was struggling to finish my training schedules. But I changed my mind, I have a bright future now still in cycling, I became a father and it was like blue skies, only blue sky.
There was a flurry of attacks at the start of the rollercoaster 180-kilometre stage featuring five climbs as riders tried to break away before the first ascent, the Col du Festre. But the peloton rode at a high speed, thwarting all those early efforts.
About 20 riders finally managed to open a gap during that climb and were joined by Wednesdays stage winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) and other talented contenders for the stage win, including team-mate Ben Healy and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers).
With the best-placed rider in that large group already lagging nearly 34 minutes behind Pogacar overall, the pack let the break get away. The main contenders for the overall win, including Pogacar and his rivals Jonas Vingegeaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step), finished 13 minutes and 40 seconds behind Campenaerts.
Earlier, Healy attacked twice from the leading group in the Cote de Saint-Apollinaire but his move eventually backfired as the Irishman got dropped when others upped the pace. A pivotal moment came in the Cote des Demoiselles when Kwiatkowski accelerated to move away and was later joined by Campenaerts and Vercher. The trio collaborated well as counter-attackers looked hesitant and reacted too late to catch them.
With only three stages left, Pogacar has a comfortable lead of 3min 11sec over two-time defending champion Vingegaard. Tour debutant Evenepoel is lagging 5min 9sec off the pace.
The battle between Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel is expected to resume on Friday. At less than 150 kilometres, the 19th stage to the ski resort of Isola 2000 is short, but tough. Riders will climb above 2,000 metres three times, including the climb to the summit of La Bonette, the highest road in France at an altitude of 2,802 metres. AP
A hugely emotional Victor Campenaerts has been talking to Seb Piquet, the voice of Race Radio. As a real professional you have to ride the Tour, you have to finish the Tour de France, said Campanaerts. Winning a stage is everyones dream Im not a neo pro, Ive been dreaming of this for a very long time.
After the classics, I had a very difficult time. I had a verbal agreement with the team about extending my contract. I was ignored.
My girlfriend supported me every day I changed my mind. . . I have a bright future in cycling. I became a father and I saw only blue skies. I felt really good on the bike.
This win is the sum of the atmosphere in the team. And were going to celebrate tonight.
I went for nine weeks on an altitude camp. She was highly pregnant. She is the hero in this story. I am so grateful that she made this possible, that I had a super long altitude camp to prepare for this Tour de France.
I had the faith that I will be in good shape. I will be leaving the team, but Im so happy that I can finish off with maybe the highlight of my career. Again, we will celebrate tonight.
I think I played it very smart [today]. Also the team gave me a lot of confidence, everyone knew I had very good legs. This was a stage I aimed for in December already. Stage 18, I said, its the only stage I see for me to win. I slipped in the break with only one bullet. I played it a bit dirty with showing everyone I as hurting a lot so I didnt have to do much too many pulls
We co-operated very well until the last kilometre. Three hard days to come, but I am looking so much to go home to my girlfriend and my son.
The peloton that contains the maillot jaune has crossed the finishing line 13min 40sec after stage winner Victor Campenaerts. There was no action today in the general classification, meaning Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) will take a 3min 11sec lead into Fridays stage, the penultimate day in the high mountains, over Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike). Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) will start tomorrows massive stage 5min 9sec adrift of Pogacar.
There were negligible change in the top 10 in the points classification:
Oier Lazanko (Movistar) moved up to fourth in the mountains classification, while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) will start Fridays stage fifth place in the competition.
And there were no changes in the upper echelons of the young rider classification:
Ineos Grenadiers have moved up to third in the team classification that is being led by UAE Team Emirates:
Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) clipped off the front 750 metres from the line, but he was overhauled by Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers). In the end, however, it was Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) who ended up celebrating after he pounced at the last to outsprint Kwiatkowsi. Was Campenaerts sandbagging? Was the Belgian playing up to the TV cameras in this tense finale? Quite possibly, but he will not care a jot after winning the first Tour de France stage of his career.
Slumped over his handlebars, sweat pouring off has face, an emotional Campenaerts is heard: I cant believe it, he says repeatedly.
Mattéo Vercher is the latest rider to tighten his shoes in the countdown to what could be the biggest day of the 23-year-olds career.
Tense few minutes in the team cars and boardrooms of Ineos Grenadiers, Lotto Dstny and TotalEnergies. Anthony Turgis won a stage for the French team, but the other two teams have yet to land a win at this years Tour.
Absolutely no chance of the leading riders being caught today. Not unless there is a Devon Loch of a collapse. Their advantage has, in fact, grown slightly to 45sec.
Michal Kwiatkowsi bends over to tighten his left shoe, the Pole preparing for what could be a tense finale. Victor Campenaerts has been sitting at the back of the three-man group for a while now. Mattéo Vercher then takes over on the front.
Victor Campenaerts may be struggling. The popular Belgian has been spotted taking bottles or attempting to from neutral service. The leading trios advantage is holding at 40sec.
Jai Hindley and his five-man group trail by around 45sec, while Wout van Aert is 1min 15sec down the road. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) has clipped off the front of Van Aerts group, but cannot work out why. Surely he does not think he can bridge the gap over to Victor Campenaerts? Probably more likely he will be hoping to get over to Hindley.
The stage leaders have conquered to majority of the days climbing and are under 15km from the finish line in Barcelonnette. Wout van Aert has not given up the chase, but all of his efforts could be in vain. Van Aerts team-mate Bart Lemmem is in the second group on the road and not taking turns. I think Visma-Lease a Bike will be be ending their day disappointed. With two riders in the breakaway, they will have wanted more from this stage.
The leading trio of Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher have gained another 20sec or so. Difficult to see how they can be reeled back in now. A lack of co-operation in the two chasing groups is playing into the hands of the stage leaders.
Wout van Aert and Michael Matthews have been doing turns on the front of the third group on the road. Their big group, however, trail by about a minute. Theres some serious firepower in that group, but they may have left this chase too late.
Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher are sharing the workload between them, while 18sec down the road it appears that the group containing Bart Lemmem, Jai Hindley, Oier Lazanko, Krists Neilands, and Toms Skujins are a little less well organised. As a result, Kwiatkowsis group has extended its advantage to 25sec.
No wins for Mattéo Vercher, while Victor Campenaerts has two WorldTour wins on his palmarès. Michal Kwiatkowsi, of course, has won the rainbow bands, two editions of Amstel Gold Race, Strade Bianche twice, Milan-Sanremo and a stack of others. Of this trio, the Pole would appear to be the favourite for the stage win, but they will have to work together if they are going to go all the way to the line. Campenaerts is a former hour record holder and so Kwiatkowsi will be hoping the time trial specialist turned breakaway man does what he does best.
Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher have a 10sec lead on a five-man chasing group featuring Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Oier Lazanko (Movistar), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek).
Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) hit the deck on the descent. The Norwegian appeared to lose his front wheel on a left-hand turn while giving chase to Victor Campenaerts, Michal Kwiatkowsi and Mattéo Vercher. That crash will, in all likelihood, spook the riders behind him who will have witnessed his crash. Bad for them, good fortune for the leading trio who have gained a few more seconds.
A small group comprising Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), Steff Cras (TotalEnergies), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) were giving chase to Michal Kwiatkowsi, before, somehow, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies) replaced them as the second group on the road.
A second big kick from Michal Kwiatkowsi sees the Pole pull clear just shy of the summit. Richard Carapaz, a former team-mate of Kwiatkowsis, gave chase. Is this the move of the day?
Grimacing and grinding away, Oier Lazanko presses on towards the summit. Bart Lemmem is continually looking over his shoulder, watching out for Visma-Lease a Bike team-mate Wout van Aert who will fancy his chances on this rolling finale.
The leading septet has been caught, but with just over 2.5km of the final categorised climb of the day to go, one suspects further attacks will follow very shortly.
A five-man group comprising Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) and Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty) bridged over to Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). The leading septet has an advntage of 18sec over the remnants of the earlier breakaway, while the peloton is 10m 40sec down.
Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) are the new stage leaders. The pair clipped off the front before gaining three or four seconds on the breakaway. Interesting.
Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), the Frenchman who has been fairly anonymous at this years race, has been pulling along the breakaway on descent off the côte de Saint-Apollinaire. Once they reach the bottom, the road will kick up towards the côte des Demoiselles Coiffées. The peloton is over 10min down the road, and it still has Tim Wellens pulling on the front.
Ben Healey has been dropped. Looks like the EF Education-EasyPost puncheur has paid the price for that attack a few minutes back.
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) shunted themselves towards the front of the breakaway around 1km from the summit. Johannessen crested the climb first to add two points to his account. For the first time today, no points for Oier Lazanko.
Geraint Thomas is the latest rider to be dropped. Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is showing himself near the front for, I think, the first time at this years race.
Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale) and Dorian Godon (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale) are struggling as the pace winds up on this climb. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) is looking lively near the front, while Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers) has been drilling it on the front. Could the former world champion win today and save Ineos Grenadiers disappointing Tour?
Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), the American national champion, has counter-attacked off the front. Once again, though, EF Education-EasyPost have had their move neutralised. Moments later Ben Healey attacked for a second time on this climb. Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike) jumped onto the Irishmans wheel, the pair have a few bike lengths on the breakaway.
Ben Healey (EF Education-Easypost) was joined by Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). But it looks like it might come to nothing.
Krists Neilands peeked over his left shoulder before putting in a sharp kick, The breakaway hits the bottom of the côte de Saint-Apollinaire 7km in length before Birmingham-born Ben Healey clips off the front.
All calm out on the roads, with the breakaway having grown its advantage over the peloton to seven minutes. Experience would suggest that attacks will start to come pretty soon, but not sure where. Will somebody launch something on the penultimate categorised climb of the day, the côte de Saint-Apollinaire, or wait until the côte des Demoiselles Coiffées?
Another summit crested (col de Manse), and another two points in the mountains classification are added to Oier Lazankos tally. That moves the Spaniard to within a point of Remco Evenepoel in the competition for the polka dot jersey . . . but some distance behind Tadej Pogacar who leads the classification.
Lazanko may be a decent climber, but we cannot see him going over this monster (Cime de la Bonette the highest point in this years race at 2,802m) ahead of the grimpeurs tomorrow.
Tim Wellens continues to tap away on the front of the peloton, monitoring the pace as the road pitches up towards the col de Manse. Riders are emptying bidons of cold water over their heads in an effort to keep cool. The breakaway, meanwhile, has pulled out a little more time, leading the stage by 6min 20sec.
Michael Matthews won the intermediate spring in Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur a few minutes ago. Not entirely sure why the former winner of the points jersey put in so much energy into adding 20 points to his tally he started the day 34th in that particular competition. Maybe he was thinking about adding a few euro to his teams prize pot? By the way, race leader Tadej Pogacar has won 65,580 so far at this years race, Biniam Girmay has trousered 57,200 and Jasper Philipsen has earned himself (or his team-mates) 49,500. By contrast, breakaway riders Steff Cras and Geraint Thomas have managed to win just 600 apiece since setting off from from Florence almost three weeks ago.
It is a warm afternoon just north of the Côte dAzur, with temperatures nudging the 30C mark. Theres a very light breeze just 7km/h which will do little to cool these raiders down. Some spectacular backdrops though. The hottest day at this years race was stage 16 into Nîmes when the average temperature was 31.1C.
. . .and the breakaway has grown out to a healthy five minutes.
Scary moment a while back on a relatively benign looking descent when Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), the former French national road champion, almost came a cropper.
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty), the leader of the points classification, has been spotted back at the race doctors car. The Eritrean who has won three stages at this years race was having his right calf tended to. It appears he was having an old wound treated. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), meanwhile, dropped back to his team car. The two-time Tour de France winner was getting his left shoe looked at. Speculating here, but he may have had an issue with one of his Boa dials on his shoe. The breakaways advantage is holding at around four minutes, while Tim Wellens tows along the peloton in his slipstream.
The breakaway has crested the second category three climb of the day, the Côte de Corps, where once again Richard Carapaz was looking lively. The Ecuadorian, however, missed out to Oier Lazanko (Movistar), the Basque who has moved up to fourth in the mountains classification having added four points to his account today.
Lazanko, for those unaware, is a versatile beast who goes well in the spring classics (winner at Clásica Jaén and third at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne), and climbs well too. The 24-year-old stunned everybody when he finished ninth at last months Critérium du Dauphiné.
The young boy Onley appears to have fallen off the rear of the of the Movistar-powered breakaway. The DSM-Firmenich PostNL rider lost around a minute, but has clawed back another 15sec now and so trails the stage leaders by 45sec. The peloton, meanwhile, is almost four minutes off the pace.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Alex Aranburu (Movistar)
Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale)
Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek)
Frank Van Den Broek (DSM-Firmenich PostNL)
Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies)
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny)
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost)
Clément Champoussin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
Steff Cras (TotalEnergies)
Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels)
Dorian Godon (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale)
Ben Healey (EF Education-Easypost)
Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech)
Jordan Jegeat (TotalEnergies)
Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility)
Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla)
Michal Kwiatkowsi (Ineos Grenadiers)
Oier Lazanko (Movistar)
Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike)
Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ)
Guillaume Martin (Cofidis)
Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla)
Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty)
Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar)
Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech)
Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL)
Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ)
Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious)
Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale)
Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost)
Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek)
Matteo Sobrero (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers)
Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies)
Georg Zimmermann (Intermarché-Wanty)
Full list of riders in this breakaway incoming we promise! Their advantage over the peloton that includes all of the jerseys at the race, has grown to almost three minutes.
The breakaway we think it is safe to call it a breakaway now following the easing of pace from the general classification contenders has around 34 riders in there, including Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL). The 21-year-old Scot, may be a name some are unfamiliar with but he is a rider whose attributes suit this stage to a tee. Ostensibly a climber, Onley is a rider who goes well on the punchy terrain where the neo-pro has registered his best results this season. After beating fellow Briton Stephen Williams himself a decent puncheur on Willunga Hill at the Tour Down Under in January, Onley followed up the only win of his short career with some creditable results back home in Europe.
Third at Gran Premio Miguel Indurain behind winner Brandon McNulty and runner-up Maxim Van Gils, was followed by a fifth spot on the final stage at this years Itzulia Basque Country. Challenging the likes of Carlos Rodríguez, Juan Ayuso, Marc Soler and Mattias Skjelmose in northern Spain tells you all you need to know about the trajectory this young man is on. He is a classy rider who could, one day, push for honours in the Ardennes classics and possibly here today.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Ben Healey (EF Education-Easypost), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost), Bart Lemmem (Visma-Lease a Bike), Christopher Juul-Jensen (Jayco-AlUla), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Alex Aranburu (Movistar) are all in the leading pack. Full details to follow on the composition of this sizeable group. Back in the peloton, UAE Team Emirates appear to have eased off the pace which should, in theory, allow this breakaway to form.
An 18-man group leads the stage, and there are some real ballers in there.
Geraint Thomas, the 2018 winner of the Tour de France, is the latest Ineos Grenadiers rider to show his face near the front. At the other end, the sprinters and heavier set riders are labouring towards the rear as the road pitches up.
The road is rising as it hits the bottom of the first categorised climb of the day, with Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) doing a turn on the front. Once again, worth noting that Michael Matthews has been active near the front of the peloton.
Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) has been subsumed by the peloton, meaning the 32-year-old Belgian Stuyven remains out in front on his own.
We have a lone stage leader and his name is Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek). Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ) is trapped in no mans land around 20sec back, but there are a some strong riders near the front of the pack, no doubt keen on bridging over to the former Milan-Sanremo winner.
It has been a very fast start to the stage, and as it stands the peloton is flying along at 67km/h. A small split has formed near the pointy end of the bunch, but it is too early to say a breakaway has formed.
Like an old concertina, the peloton in pulling and tugging, riders edging forward before they are reeled back in. The invisible elastic is refusing to snap.
Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech) gained a hand of seconds on the twitchy looking peloton, before a trio of riders bridged over to form a quintet of stage leaders.
Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and a handful of others are looking lively from the very start of the stage.
Race director Christian Prudhomme has popped his head out of the shiny red Skoda and dropped his flag to signify the start of racing.
Some bold words from Adam Blythe, the former professional turned Eurosport commentator, who has just stated that he feels Tadej Pogacar is a better rider than Eddy Merckx. Telegraph Sport is not sure it can agree with Mr Blythe. We suspect there is a large degree of recency bias kicking in here. For those too young to know, heres a potted overview of Merckxs Tour history . . .
Born: June 17, 1945
Completed seven editions, won five: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 & 1974Points classification: 1969, 1971 & 1972Mountains classification: 1969 & 1970Combination classification: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 & 1974Finished 185 stages and won 34Days in yellow: 108
Eddy Merckx, who became the second rider to win five Tours de France in 1974, is widely regarded as the greatest cyclist to have ever lived.
With a palmarès, or list of wins, that also boasts five Giri dItalia, one Vuelta a España, three world road titles and 19 monuments of cycling Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Giro di Lombardia it would be almost impossible to argue against Merckxs standing in the rich pantheon of the sport. In addition, Merckx also took the world hour record in Mexico in 1972 with a distance of 49.431km while the Belgian also claimed the highest number of first-class race victories in a professional career that spanned from 1965 to 1978.
After winning the world amateur title in 1964, Merckx turned professional before winning the first of seven Milan-Sanremo titles the following season aged just 20. In 1967 the Belgian repeated his Milan-Sanremo triumph while adding the Flèche Wallonne one-day classic to his palmarès before making his grand tour debut in the 50th edition of the Giro dItalia. After winning two stages in Italy and claiming a top 10 finish Merckx went on to take his first of three world champions rainbow jerseys, still just 22 years-old.
In 1968 Merckx won the Paris-Roubaix cobbled classic before going on to dominate the Giro dItalia when he became the first Belgian to win the three-week race while also topping the points and mountains classifications.
Despite Merckxs brilliance, it is fair to say that his riding style has little in common with cyclings other greats such as Fausto Coppi or Jacques Anquetil. It has been said that Merckxs own domestiques, or servants on the road, often struggled to keep up with their team leader as he thrashed away on the pedals pounding his way to another podium.
With Merckx there were no clever tactics, no camouflage, tactical feints, wrote one French journalist. From the first kilometres, often, other riders just knew what was about to happen.
Merckxs appetite was legendary. When Christian Raymond, a rider in the 1960s, explained to his daughter how a race had unravelled, she responded: That Belgian, he doesnt even leave you the crumbs . . . hes a cannibal.
The rider nicknamed The Cannibal made his Tour de France debut in 1969. After finishing the opening prologue in Roubaix six seconds behind Germanys Rudi Altig, the Belgians Faema outfit won the second-day team time trial in the Brussels suburb Merckx grew up in to put him into the maillot jaune, the leaders yellow jersey. After losing the jersey to team-mate Julien Stevens the following day, Merckx regained the overall lead five days later after winning the first of his 34 Tour de France stage wins.
After winning another three stages two time trials and a day in the mountains Merckx had built up a lead of eight minutes ahead of a classic Pyrenean stage that included the Peyresourde, Aspin, Soulour, Tourmalet and Aubisque. Around 200m from the summit of the Tourmalet the Cannibal attacked before dropping Roger Pingeon and Raymond Poulidor. Merckx ended up taking the stage following a 140km solo breakaway with a massive winning margin of eight minutes pushing his overall lead to 16 minutes.
Merckxisimo ran the headline in LÉquipe, a reference to Fausto Il Campionissimo Coppi who, himself, was no stranger to the lone breakaway. Not only had Merckx won his debut Tour de France, but also scooped up six stages while also topping the points, mountains, combination and combativity classifications. The quiet, often shy, Belgian had crushed all before him while the die had been cast for his domination.
The Belgian successfully defended his title the following year while equalling Charles Pélissiers record from 1930 of eight stage wins. Once again Merckx took the mountains, combination and combativity classifications.
After making his Tour de France debut in 1970, Spains Luis Ocaña returned the following year alongside fellow contenders Joop Zoetemelk of Holland and the Dutchman Lucien Van Impe hoping to find a chink in Merckxs seemingly impenetrable armour.
Following a strong start from Merckx, Ocaña and Zoetemelk escaped on the ascent of the Puy de Dôme before the Spaniard took the stage. Days later, on the short mountain stage from Grenoble to Orcières, Merckx was once again dropped before Ocaña took a second stage to take the maillot jaune. During the following days transition stage Merckx produced a fearsome ride, though remained in Ocañas shadow.
Disaster, though, struck for the Spaniard during a rain-soaked 14th stage in the Pyrenees. Merckx had attacked on the ascent of the Col de Menté. Ocaña gave chase on the descent before crashing on a hairpin. As the Spaniard got to his feet Zoetemelk swerved into the maillot jaune who soon left the race, battered and distraught, in a helicopter. Merckx later regained the leaders jersey though refused to wear it the following day out of respect for the luckless Ocaña. Following his brief wobble, Merckx retained the Tour de France before returning the following year in the world champions jersey to claim a fourth title.
The rematch between Merckx and Ocaña, sadly, never materialised after the Belgian missed the 1973 edition which was won by the Spaniard.
Merckxs fifth and final Tour de France triumph came in 1974 after, considering his high standards, he had endured a disappointing season having not won a single spring classic. He had, though, just won a fifth Giro dItalia to equal Alfredo Binda and Coppi as the most successful riders in the Italian grand tour.
Despite later admitting that the wear and tear was beginning to show, Merckx won an incredible seven stages in the 61st edition of the race before beating Raymond the Eternal Second Poulidor to the top spot on the Paris podium.
The Belgian returned the following year when he had to, for the first time, settle for second spot behind Bernard Thévenet while winning the final two of his 34 career stages both time trials.
A sixth-placed finish in 1977 marked the end of The Cannibals Tour de France career. Merckx, nowadays, runs a successful bike manufacturing company and remains a regular guest of the Tour de France organisers.
Good morning and welcome to our live rolling blog from stage 18 at the Tour de France, the 179.5 kilometre run from Gap to Barcelonnette.
With five category three climbs peppered throughout the stage along with a few uncategorised kickers today is a day that should, in theory, favour the baroudeurs. By our calculations, there are 12 teams TWELVE that have yet to win a stage at this years Tour, so we expect to see an almighty battle to get into the days breakaway. Of those squads who have not won a stage, just Soudal-Quick Step have any genuine hope of cracking the top three in the general classification thanks to Remco Evenepoel who is enjoying a very impressive Tour debut (third at 5min 9sec)
Without boring you senseless with a long list of riders that may make the breakaway or stand a chance of winning the stage, here are the winless teams we expect will be trying to get one, two or even three riders into what we think will be a massive breakaway: Bahrain Victorious, Bora-Hansgrohe, Cofidis, Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos Grenadiers, Israel-Premier Tech, Lidl-Trek, Lotto Dstny, Movistar, Uno-X Mobility.
Before the stage starts, heres a quick look at the standing in the main three competitions.
Ok we lied, here are some potential stage winners: Alex Aranburu (Movistar), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lisma Lease A Bike), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious).
Anyhow, racing gets under way at 12.20pm which is when we will return to kickstart this blog into action.
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