As it happened – Breakaway wins Tour de France stage 18 as GC battle pauses

Campenaerts is also reportedly set to be joining Visma-Lease a Bike which is news that emerged from media in Belgium in June, as he set out his sights on this Tour de France and becoming a domestique in future with the Dutch squad:

Victor Campenaerts to join Visma-Lease a Bike in 2025 with Tour de France in sights

Campenaerts celebrated with his Lotto-Dstny teammates after the podium ceremony. They came here as a team with the big goal of winning one stage. Arnaud De Lie and Maxim Van Gils seemed their best options but after neither of them managed it in the opening 17 stages, Campenaerts has come to Lotto’s rescue.

Make sure to checkout Stephen Farrand’s stage report from all the day’s action alongside our growing gallery from a brutal day in the heat.

Tour de France: Victor Campenaerts surges from three-rider breakaway for stage 18 victory

Here’s what Wout van Aert made of stage 18 after missing out on victory again at the Tour de France:

“I know it’s hard to win from the break for everyone and I have to say when Kwiato went, he was strong and I was kind of on the limit on the top of that KOM but it’s a shame afterwards I had to gamble a bit into the easiest part of the stage,” he told Eurosport as he described where it went wrong and he missed the key move.

“I said to Bart [Lemmen] to jump with the counterattacks and I was sitting a bit in the back. I came down that descent and everything was over.”

Van Aert could still be key in the final two mountain stages as he tries to help Jonas Vingegaard pull back a 3:11 deficit to Tadej Pogačar, but he’ll be looking for some help from his team in the opening phase.

“Still two really big days to come and I hope the guys in the bunch had an easier day than we had so they can at least do the beginning tomorrow.

Campenaerts gave a wonderfully emotional interview post-race, with huge credit to his girlfriend for her support. It’s hard to quantify just how much a Tour win means for the tiniest percentage of pro riders who ever make it there but this perhaps characterises it best:

“As a real professional, you have to ride the Tour de France, finish the Tour de France and winning a stage is everybody’s dream. I’m not…