Key events

17m agoPedersen claims the intermediate sprint!
39m agoParet-Peintre adds two more polka points
1h agoParet-Peintre earns five points!
2h agoParet-Peintre collects mountains points!
3h agoKilometre zero
4h agoWilliam Fotheringham's stage guide
5h agoPreamble

43km to go After their efforts to bridge across, Bernal and Gregoire will regret missing this break move. They trail by more than 30 seconds now.

45km to go Carapaz and Paret-Peintre have surged ahead to link with the leaders. Engelhardt has already fallen back, leaving an elite group of six for the final two climbs.

47km to go As the second group eases its pursuit, attacks emerge from the break. Johannessen, Jorgenson, Schmid, Raul Garcia (Movistar) and Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla) gain 11 seconds. Carapaz will not let this slip.

51km to go The break descends while chasers fail to close in. The gap between the two leading groups stands at 1min 20secs. A rider from the group of 28 might still attack on steeper slopes, but the groups will not merge.

Pedersen takes the intermediate sprint!

Well done, Mads! He secured all 25 points alone. Now the question is if he stays for the final climbs.

“Great that S4C are showing the stages (and here’s hoping you manage to avoid the diplomatic incident that might become known as ‘Goobledegook Gate’),” writes Brónagh McAtasney, (they weren’t my words, guys). “Just a reminder that TG4 (previously Teilifís na Gaeilge) broadcast all the stages in their entirety every year. You could watch it alongside your updates and pick up a bit of Irish while you’re at it.”

Slainte, Brónagh and over to you, Guardian readers. I expect emails next year from newly Irish fluent Tour fans. All of this serves to remind me that I’m fortunate to have access to pay-TV and what a travesty it is that ITV chose not to bid for Tour rights.

On that note, Gareth Edwards emails in: “Following your comment on Whoop data, TNT and the highlights on Channel 5 just aren’t the same and I feel my enthusiasm for the Tour dimming as a result. At least Ned Boulting and David Millar have a podcast that preserves a bit of the old ITV flair.”

A few years ago I had a lengthy phone conversation with Ned Boulting to preview some edition of the Tour, he’s a lovely man and the TV coverage is worse for his absence. I also miss David Millar’s insights and dashing good looks.

67km to go The next marker on the road is the intermediate sprint in little more than 11km. Pedersen is still in that lead breakaway group and has to be gunning for the full 25 points on offer there. The Dane has responded incredibly to Philipsen’s result yesterday.

Two more polka-points for Paret-Peintre

72km to go Carapaz goes with the Frenchman but doesn’t push too hard, maybe he has grander designs for today. Paret-Peintre cuts Pogacar’s lead to seven in the mountains classification. There are a maximum of 12 points left on the road today in the battle for polkadots, so Paret-Peintre could claim the jersey by the end of the stage but can finish no lower than third and would need to claim the penultimate two points on offer at the top of Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes too.

74km to go The breakaway riders aren’t letting the group behind them close the gap too much, they are working hard as they head up the category three Côte des Terrasses. There’s a couple more mountains classification points on offer here, which no doubt Paret-Peintre will be pushing for.

Great intel coming in from you lovely readers on the support car drivers. Matthew Cobb writes in: “According to the France 2/3 TV commentary the other day, all the drivers are ex-professional cyclists. It’s a precondition imposed by the Tour organisers so that the cars can predict what the riders might do and avoid problems.”

Although Charlie Tinsley casts some doubt on that: “I won a ride in the neutral support care on the London to Canterbury stage in 2007. The driver drove with his knees all the way whilst rolling up cigarettes (which were distributed to the rest of the support cars via a motorcycle cameraman) and leering in a particularly gallic manner at any exposed female flesh. I was very hungover and terrified.

“What a great day out that was! Thanks Mavic.”

86km to go While they’re waffling on about Whoop recovery data on TNT (honestly, give it a rest), the 14 riders in the break have an issue behind them in the shape of a 28-strong group of chasers that includes the likes of Quinn Simmons, Michael Matthews and Bruno Armirail.

Five points to Paret-Peintre!

90km to go Mountain wizadry as the group of Carapaz and Paret-Peintre catch the breakway group and almost immediately head off to pick up the polkadot points. It’s the Soudal Quick-Step man who gets them, taking his defecit to Pogacar in the mountains classification down to single digits by my count.

“Hi Tom,” emails in Rich (just Rich). “I am sure none of the UK readers of the fine Guardian MBM would dream of having live TV coverage of the Tour on (alongside your coverage, of course) whilst they are supposed to be working on a sunny Thursday afternoon. So I doubt they’d like to be reminded that the last four stages of this year’s Tour are available free-to-air in the UK on S4C (iPlayer or YouTube).

“The commentary is currently a joy of apparent gobbledegook interspersed with outbursts of ‘Mads Pedersen’ and ‘Carapaz’ but I’m sure it’s even better if you actually speak Welsh.”

That is true public service broadcasting from Rich, there.

95km to go I’m constantly amazed by the driving in the support cars. We’re watching Søren Wærenskjold getting patched up as he hangs on the edge of one motor while another in Lidl-Trek livery whizzes past at close quarters. The riders must get used to it but it makes my heart skip a beat.

97km to go There is another group out 40-odd seconds ahead of the peloton but it appears to be lacking the harmony required for the chase. It has a couple of EF riders in there, who have teammates in the group ahead, which maybe explains it.

100km to go Egan Bernal has joined the riders chasing the breakaway. They are 40 seconds behind the breakaway group, who are some 2mins 30secs ahead of the main bunch.

104km to go The riders are creeping up Côte de Monteynard, a 9.7km climb at 5%. It’s a category two, so elite climbing skills are not required to hang on.

108km to go The peloton has largely given up on the break, they now have a 1min 30secs gap, but there a splinter groups is still chasing the eight men at tête de la course. Nine riders, including Carapaz, Paret-Peintre and Healy are trying to close a 1min 8secs gap.

117km to go Gregoire has bridged across the 35-second gap to the breakaway. The peloton aren’t letting those eight get away yet, EF are chasing this as they desperately want a stage win.

127km to go French national champion Romain Gregoire has gone off after the break on the descent. What a stunning sight this is as the peloton winds down the mountain hairpins, from above the riders look a bit like marbles going downhill.

129km to go The riders up the road with Pedersen are: Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Nicholas Breuillard (TotalEnergies). They have earned a lead of 35secs on the peloton.

139km to go Now this is interesting, Mads Pedersen has got himself in a small breakaway group of seven riders. His lead in the green jersey standings has come under threat from Jasper Philipsen after the Alpecin-Premier Tech sprinter won yesterday. It’s not just the intermediate sprint points that Pedersen might fancy, he has said he would like to win a mountain stage too…

Mountains points to Paret-Peintre!

148km to go Paret-Peintre makes the move to take the ten polkadot points on offer on Côte d’Engins, Carapaz gets eight. That result means Pogacar’s lead in the mountains classification is down to 14 points. That marker doesn’t signal the end of the climb, however. The road continues to go up for another 15km before the descent towards Varces-Allières-et-Risset.

150km to go We have a couple of EF Education First riders off the front, Sean Quinn and, unsurprisingly, Healy. They’ve been joined by Mauro Schmid of Jayco AlUla, who won stage 13. Their lead is 15 seconds, so the elastic hasn’t snapped yet.

155km to go The break is no more. The peloton has swallowed it up amid a series of attacks from the likes of Ben Healy, Richard Carapaz and Valentin Paret-Peintre.

158km to go And it has, the gap is down to 15secs. Interestingly two of UAE Team Emirates worker bees, Brandon McNulty and Adam Yates, are struggling at the back of the peloton. McNulty looked in rough shape during the stage presentation earlier. I don’t think this matters for Pogacar, he can handle himself, but Del Toro could do with a couple of lieutenants, especially if he’s not 100%.

161km to go The five riders up the road are Mathis le Berre (TotalEnergies), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Nikolya Vinokurov, Aaron Gate (XDS Astana) and Lewis Askey (NSN). They managed to get 45secs on the main bunch but that is about to disappear rapidly.

174km to go Five riders have broken away and churned out a lead of around 20 seconds. That is unlikely to last when they hit Côte d’Engins shortly.

177km to go There are reports of illness in the UAE Team Emirates camp, Adam Yates has been struggling the last couple of days and now Isaac del Toro is said to be unwell. Given the stresses the Tour places on the body, in many ways it’s remarkable that 163 of the 184 riders are still going.

180km to go The peloton is gunning along at nearly 60km/h, no breakaway yet but the first climb is coming up fast so that won’t remain the case for long.

Kilometre zero

After little bit of a delay due to Cofidis’ Milan Fretin suffering a technical, Christian Prudhomme finally waves us off.

The riders are rolling out from Voiron to kilometre zero. Flag drop due in 8km.

Yesterday was a big moment for stage winner Jasper Philipsen, the Alpecin–Premier Tech rider had finished in the top five in five sprints without winning one before stage 17, with the threatening to get away from him.

A second stage win for Alpecin–Premier Tech is probably par the course, given they do not have a GC contender and Philipsen has been bailed out to some degree by Mathieu van der Poel, who won stage nine. Van der Poel was on leadout services for Philipsen yesterday and duly delivered.

Asked by Reuters for his feelings at the stage finish in Voiron, Philipsen was very honest.

“It’s a relief,” Philipsen said. “It was a rollercoaster ‌of emotions in this Tour de France. The first stages were just horrible, I couldn’t find myself, I couldn’t find the feeling I was hoping for.“

“I was just disappointed, angry that I couldn’t take a stage win,” the 28-year-old added.

“I didn’t find my feeling, ‌the team had to deal with it.

“I just doubted myself. I did everything I could, we did amazing preparation with the team but I was just ⁠not myself.

“Was it because of the heat? It was really horrible. Was it something else? I don’t know, but I was not at the level I was hoping ‌for.

“Mentally, it was a rollercoaster.“

Mads Pedersen’s lead in the green jersey race is down to just seven points, but Philipsen said “it will be very hard” to dethrone the Dane. Today is not the day for that, but it does add intrigue to the closing stages of a race where the GC battle is all-but over.

Here’s a visualisation of today’s parcours:

William Fotheringham's stage guide

William Fotheringham

Stage 18, Thursday 23 July: Voiron to Orcières-Merlette, 185.2km

South to a famous location in Tour history: it is 55 years since Luis Ocaña put Eddy Merckx to the sword on these roads and 37 since Laurent Fignon and Greg LeMond duelled here. Chances are this stage’s winner will emerge from a break, as the stage is not tough enough to concern Vingegaard and Pogacar. There are two serious climbs early on, but the final ascent to Orcières is more nagging than steep. The win will go to a climber who is an astute tactician: if Ben Healy is out of the overall picture, this will suit the Irishman.