Tour de France 2026: stage 18 heads for summit finish at Orcières-Merlette – live

So who is excited for tomorrow? I know I am. I'll be back on blog duty bringing you updates on the race up Alpe d'Huez. In the meantime, here's the latest from Jeremy Whittle in Orcieres Merlette, his full report on today's stage will be on the site a little later on:

Tom Pidcock, who nabbed tenth on today's stage, tells TNT that he is not being allowed in the breakaway anymore and that he will be focusing on his GC position now. Do you believe him?

Pedersen's lead back to a more comfortable 32 after that breakaway ride today:

1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 477
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) 445
3. Biniam Girmay (NSN) 361
4. Max Kanter (XDS Astana Team) 271
5. Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) 230
6. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 165
7. Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) 159
8. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) 131
9. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) 130
10. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) 129

Heartbreakingly close for Paret-Peintre:

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 70
2. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) 69
3. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 63
4. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) 36
5. Paul Seixas (Decathlon) 34
6. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) 30
7. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 22
8. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) “
9. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) 20
10. Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) 18

I said no change in the top ten, but Carapaz has replaced Yannis Voisard of Tudor:

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 64hrs 35mins 13secs
2. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe): +4mins 32secs
3. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): +6mins 51secs
4. Paul Seixas (Decathlon): +7mins 11secs
5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +9mins 22secs
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +10mins 14secs
7. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +12mins 50secs
8. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5): +12mins 58secs
9. Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies): +14mins 04secs
10. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost): +21mins 00secs

Confirmation of Carapaz's victory:

1. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 4hrs 26mins 21secs
2. Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla): +45secs
3. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) “
4. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step): +1min 14secs
5. Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility): +1min 57secs
6. Raúl García (Movistar): +2mins 12secs
7. Pablo Castrillo (Movistar): +4mins 30secs
8. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +4mins 35secs
9. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe) “
10. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) “

There's a half-hearted sprint for the line from the GC group, but there will be no change in the top ten from yesterday.

With the stage decided, will we see any attacks in the GC race? Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe are riding on the front. I'll stay with this until they finish.

Schmid follows up his stage 13 win with a second place today, with Jorgenson comes in third. Paret-Peintre crosses fourth, he's cut the polkadot jersey battle to one point but it could have been more.

Brilliant ride from the EF Education-EasyPost rider, he bided his time and then blew the breakaway to pieces on the final climb. Carapaz has been in the hunt a lot of over the last few stages and now has his prize.

1.5km to go Carapaz is riding away. The stage is his now.

2km to go Carapaz has put 20 seconds into the rest and now Paret-Peintre is going backwards. The Frenchman is fourth on the road, which would see him agonisingly short of Pogacar's polkadot points tally.

3.5km to go Carapaz goes again and Paret-Peintre can't go this time. Jorgenson and Schmid had just got back on but they're now all in a battle for the minor places. Carapaz timed that to perfection.

4km to go Carapaz put down the power and Paret-Peintre goes with him. They've distanced the rest of the group, it's surely between these two now.

4.5km to go Jorgenson makes a little dart but Carapaz shuts that down. This is very cagey.

5km to go The gradient is tipping towards double figures, back in the peloton Decathlon look to be lining up near the front. Does Paul Seixas fancy testing Del Toro's legs? That battle for the young rider's white jersey is veyr much alive.

6km to go The road is about to get steeper, but still they ride together.

8km to go it feels like the calm before the storm, the leaders are about a kilometre away from the categorised part of this climb. When will Carapaz strike out?

12km to go Jorgenson attacks again. This time the Visma-Lease a Bike man went as Johannessen was getting bottles from the team car, but he was quickly shut down.

15km to go No moves as yet from the breakaway riders, all six together as they glide down a short descent before starting to go up again. The Orcières-Merlette climb is 7.1km at an average of 6.7%.

A quick acceleration and the Frenchman is now just five points behind Pogacar in the race to become king of the mountains. Third place on the stage will be good enough now.

20km to go Garcia is nearly back with the leaders, but if he's already struggling now I'm not sure he has the legs when the road ramps up.

21km to go Brandon McNulty has abandoned. He's been struggling with illness all day and looked very lonely cycling by himself in front of the broom wagon. That is a blow to UAE Team Emirates.

23km to go Garcia has dropped off following that attack, so six has become five. That was an incredibly poor prediction from me. Wow.

25km to go We're at the foot of the category three Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes. I assume these six will stay together here, but as I type that Jorgenson attacks on a roundabout.

34km to go Ian Stannard is a bit grumpy in the Netcompany Ineos team car. Understandable given they had two riders in the break and missed the move. Bernal and Arensman should not both be watching these leaders ride away, but they are. Another odd Tour for what was once cycling's dominant force. Oscar Onley may have added something had he not been injured but Dave Brailsford's return has failed to conjure any results so far, no stage wins and no rider in the top ten of any of the main classifications for Netcompany Ineos.

43km to go After working to get across, Bernal and Gregoire will be kicking themselves they have missed this move in the break. They're more than 30 seconds behind now.

45km to go And there you have it, Carapaz and Paret-Peintre have gunned off to join the escapists. Engelhardt has dropped off already, so we're looking at an elite group of six for these final two categorised climbs.

47km to go With the second group on the road seemingly giving up the chase, we're seeing attacks off the front of the breakaway. Johannessen, Jorgenson, Schmid, plus Raul Garcia (Movistar) and Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla) have got 11 seconds. Carapaz surely won't be letting this go.

51km to go The breakaway are on a descent now and it doesn't look like the chasers are catching them. The gap now between the leading two groups on the road is 1min 20secs. That isn't to say a rider from that rump of 28 won't try something on steeper slopes, but these two groups aren't coming together.

Chapeau, Mads! He's earned every one of those 25 points. No one dared to go with him. Now the question is whether he tries to hang around for the final couple of 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 or my views, 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.â€

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.â€

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.