The 5,500 meters of climbing lived up to expectations. Stage 18 of the Tour de France this Thursday led to a completely shattered race between Vif and Courchevel, across three Hors Catégorie climbs. Ben O’Connor was the sole survivor of the early breakaway, while Valentin Madouas fought hard to secure 24th place on the day. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet dropped to sixteenth overall.
Three Alpine iconic climbs were on the Tour de France riders’ menu this Thursday, making this eighteenth act the clear queen stage of this 2025 edition. After forty kilometres of valley to open the day, the endless Glandon (21.7 km at 5%), Madeleine (19.3 km at 7.8%) and Loze (26.5 km at 6.5%) passes followed one another, bringing the elevation gain to more than 5,500 metres, the highest total on the Tour de France since 2013. Following a controlled first part of the stage in preparation for the intermediate sprint, the battle for the breakaway started, but no attempt really succeeded before the slopes of Glandon. A few strong men then took the lead, and some GC favorites also went on the attack, forcing the peloton to set a sustained pace from the first difficulty of the day. Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet was able to hold the wheels all the way to the top alongside Valentin Madouas, but when the Visma-Lease a Bike team decided to push hard fifteen kilometres from the summit of the Col de la Madeleine, later on, the Norman was unable to follow.
“Guillaume had nothing left”, Stéphane Goubert
Valentin Madouas held on a little longer, but Groupama-FDJ was unable to join the party in the final sixty kilometres of racing. Ben O’Connor took a gap on the favourites before the Col de la Loze and the Australian capitalized on it to win in Courchevel. Tadej Pogacar secured his yellow jersey, while Valentin Madouas (24th) reached the finish fourteen minutes after the winner, and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet (33rd) nearly fifteen minutes after his teammate. The French climber now sits in sixteenth place overall. “It was hard for Guillaume,” commented Stéphane Goubert. “He’s been fighting for several days, and he had nothing left today. His mental strength kept him going until then, but it was his legs that gave out. Valentin was very brave. It’s a shame he couldn’t join the breakaway, because that would have allowed him to achieve a better result. In the back, the guys managed their day well. There aren’t many stages left, but we have to keep fighting until Paris.” On Friday, the second stage in the Alps will take the riders to La Plagne, after only 130 kilometres but still 4,600 meters of climbing.
