On stage 18 of the Tour de France Vincenzo Nibali once again showed that he is the strongest rider in the race when he rode away from past and present rivals on the Hautacam climb to claim the last stage in the Pyrenees.
The race for yellow has been decided for over a week now and the mountains and points classification are now mathematically assured, but there is only 15 seconds between second and fourth place which is what will make the individual time trial worth watching.
Read the full race report and results from Stage 18 of the 2014 Tour de France here.
Enjoy the photos from stage 18 courtesy of BrakeThrough Media (follow on Instagram and Twitter) and Cor Vos.
- The German riders in this year’s Tour line up for a pre-stage photo.
- Marcel Kittel will be looking forward to the flatter stages of the last three days.
- Blel Kadri was escaped from the day’s breakaway with Mikel Nieve on the Col du Tourmalet.
- Lars Boom was in the day’s breakaway but faded to finish 20 minutes down on stage winner Nibali.
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- Chris Horner made what was his first real attack of this year’s Tour de France on the final climb to Hautacam. He was joined by Vincenzo Nibali who then rode off to win the stage.
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- Jean-Christophe Peraud and KOM classification leader Rafal Majka duke it out on the final climb.
- Nibali followed Chris Horner’s attack from a reduced peloton near the start of the Hautacam climb before riding away on his own.
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- Nibali caught lone leader Mikel Nieve with 8.1km to go the summit before pushing on …
- … to win the race by more than a minute as general manager Alexander Vinokourov celebrated from the Astana team car.
- Rafal Majka had tried to attack his small group just before the line to get more KOM points, but Thibaut Pinot was up up to the challenge. He marked Majka then pushed past, finishing second on the stage and moving into second place overall.
- Jean-Christophe Peraud was fourth on the stage, 1:15 behind Nibali, and now moves into third overall. Tejay van Garderen meanwhile remains sixth overall.
- Romain Bardet crossed the line a further 43 seconds behind his teammate Peraud but remains fifth overall.
- Peter Sagan entertains the crowd with a wheelie …
- … while Jack Bauer does the same.
