Stage 18 of the 2026 Tour de France was dominated by a breakaway group of six riders that led for nearly 148km. At the summit finish in Orcières-Merlette, it was Richard Carapaz, who went free with 3.5km to go to win the stage.
After yesterday’s transitional stage, today’s 18th stage was a 185.2 km ride from yesterday’s arrival town Voiron to Orcières-Merlette. The day serves up a number of categorized climbs – two Cat. 3, one Cat. 2 and two Cat. 1, including the summit finish of the stage.
After a mid stage crash yesterday, José Felix Parra will not start today. 163 riders roll out of Voiron.
Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step), Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Lewis Askey (NSN), and Marco Haller (Tudor) attacked immediately, and opened a small gap at km 4, but Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) was driving a strong chase.
At km 10, Nicolas Vinokurov and Aaron Gate were powering out for XDS Astana, along with Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Lewis Askey (NSN) and Mathis Le Berre (Total Energies). The peloton trailed by 20 seconds.
The leaders neared Côte d’Engins, the first Cat. 1 of the day, and the entrance to the Alps, they led by 45 seconds.
Affini upped chase, with Healy is on his wheel, followed by Quentin Pacher, Benjamin Thomas, Quinn Simmons. They were able to erode the gap to 20 seconds.
Abrahamsen, Vinokurov and Le Berre continued to power in the break. Liam Slock, Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto Intermarché), Anders Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost) were closing the gap, though. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) attacked from the bunch with Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin Premier Tech) following.
And the attackers were caught just short of the summit. Ben Healy immediately went on the attack and opened a small gap. Carapaz, Bernal, Caruso and Paret-Peintrecatch were able to catch up.
Once more the peloton stopped the attack, but Healy was not done. He went on the attack once more and Schmid, Carapaz, Paret-Peintre and Quinn jumped on.
Paret-Peintre took the first KOM points, with Carapaz crossing second. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) accelerated right off the summit.
Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Nicolas Breuillard (Total Energies) were able to open a gap of 20 seconds at km 41. EF Education First was trying to animate the peloton, but the gap continued to open.
Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United) tried to bridge. At km 55, he trailed the leaders by 30 seconds and by km 67, he was able to latch onto the break.
Healy continued to try and bridge, this time joined by Schmid, Garcia Pierna, Vacek, and Tratnik. They trailed by 45 seconds at km 74.
There was now a group of nine chasers (Healy, Carapaz, Vervaeke, Stuyven, V. Paret-Peintre, Tratnik, Garcia Pierna, Vacek, Schmid). They were 1’10” behind the eight leaders after 80 kilometres of battle. The peloton trailed by 1’30”.
At the bottom of the Côte de Monteynard (9.7km at 5%), the eight leaders were 1 minute ahead of the first chase group. A group with Egan Bernal trailed by 1’20”, and the gap to the peloton was up to 1’55”.
Bernal bridged to the Carapaz chase group. They were able to close the 40 second gap behind the leaders as the summit of Côte de Monteynard neared making it 14 riders at the front: Jorgenson, Pedersen, Vacek, Carapaz, Bernal, Arensman, V. Paret-Peintre, Engelhardt, Schmid, T. Johannessen, Castrillo, Garcia Pierna, Grégoire, and Breuillard.
V. Paret Peintre again took the top KOM points. The gap to the peloton was 4 minutes by the summit.
With 80km to go, the gap to the peloton was up to 5 minutes.
The Côte des Terrasses (3.4 km long, average gradient of 6.6%) was next on the slate. The chase group of 22 riders including Quinn Simmons was just 23 seconds back.
Simmons, Baudin, Healy, Valgren, Tejada, Kwiatkowski, Vervaeke, Bennett, Braz Afonso, Martin-Guyonnet, and Hirschi accelerated out of the chase group. The gap to the leaders dropped to 40 seconds.
53km to go and the lead group had moved their advantage over the chasers back out to 1’18”. The gap to the peloton was 8’11”.
With 49km to the line, Jorgenson, Johannessen and Engelhardt opened a gap over the rest of the break. Schmid and Garcia Pierna bridged the gap to them. Carapaz reacted as well with Paret-Peintre chasing. Then Engelhardt was dropped.
At 45km, it was Carapaz, Paret-Peintre, Jorgenson, T. Johannessen, Schmid, and Garcia Pierna at the lead. The Arensman – Bernal group trailed by 25”, and the gap to the Simmons group had increased to 2’50”. The peloton was at 7’55”.
Into the final 25km, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar) were ready to tackle the penultimate climb of the day (the Cat. 3 Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes). The Bernal group was at 1’20”, Simmons at 4’30” and the peloton at 7’50”.
Paret-Peintre again goes for the KOM points. Matteo Jorgensen immediately poured on the juice after the summit, but he was not able to open a gap.
With just 7km to go, it was clear that the leaders would be able to stay away. The yellow jersey group did close to 5’30”, but the catch would not happen.
Jorgensen attacked with 4.5km to go, but it did not last. Then Carapaz went with Paret-Peintre on his wheel. Schmid and Jorgenson bridged.
At km 3.5 Carapaz went again. This time, no one could follow.
2026 Tour de France: Stage 18 Brief Results
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)
- Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), +45”
- Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), +45”
- Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), +1’14”
- Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), +1’57”
2026 Tour de France: General Classification After Stage 18
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG) @ 64h 35’14”
- Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +4’32”
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG), +6’51”
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), +7’11”
- Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), +9’22”
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