Tour de France stage 18 as it happened: Arnaud Demare wins stage 18 as Geraint Thomas retains yellow jersey
Follow all the latest from the 171km stage from Trie-Sur-Baïse to Pau as Geraint Thomas looks to tighten his grip on the yellow jersey
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Your support makes all the difference.Geraint Thomas is closing in on his maiden grand tour and yellow jersey, now only three competitive stages away from sealing the deal, and he now has the added bonus of Chris Froome's commitment to help get over the line.
However he still has Tom Dumoulin lurking at 1min 59sec off the pace and the Dutch rider is almost certain to gain some time during Saturday's time trial, which is firmly his domain.
While Thomas will be looking to keep rivals at bay, Peter Sagan will be chasing the stage win in a sprint in Pau, although he may just be happy to finish after his 'hard crash' yesterday.
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Hello and welcome along to our live coverage of stage 18 of the Tour de France, a lumpy but manageable stage for the sprinters from Trie-Sur-Baïse to Pau over 171km. Here's our stage preview:
After a ratcheting up of jibes and counter-jibes, Dave Brailsford has finally taken a small step back in his war of words with David Lappartient and the whole of France. Though in fairness it would have difficult to take another step up after his explosive press conference on Monday. Here's the latest:
So, is Chris Froome done in this race or is there something more to come, one last spectacular shot at glory? Froome said yesterday he is here to support Thomas, but Brailsford insisted the four-time winner should never be written off.
Confirmation that Peter Sagan rides today, despite his crash yesterday. Of course he does.
Stage 18 is away!
And immediately several go on the attack...
Four out in front; Luke Durbridge (Mitchelton-Scott), Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie), Matt Hayman (Mitchelton-Scott) , Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step) and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wonty-Groupe Gobert). The peloton - and particularly the teams hunting a sprint victory today - are not letting them go too far.
140km to go
The front quartet have a gap of around one and a half minutes, with the peloton chasing at a fair lick with FDJ on the front – they want Arnaud Demare in position to win this stage at the finish.
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