Tour de France 2019: Stage 18 Route, Distance, Live Stream and TV Schedule

Julian Alaphilippe has held the 2019 Tour de France lead for 13 stages, but the yellow jersey rider will undergo his most difficult test so far when he faces Stage 18 on Thursday.

Three days have passed since the last mountain stage, but the Alpine phase of Le Tour brings steep inclines back with a vengeance in what some predict could be the undoing of Alaphilippe.

Geraint Thomas remains one minute, 35 seconds off the leader in second, while Steven Kruijswijk of Team Jumbo-Visma sits another 12 seconds behind him in third.

The climbers will be eying this as their opportunity to employ tactics and help establish a new leader at the head of Le Tour unless Alaphilippe can prove his doubters wrong.

Date: Thursday, July 25

Distance: 208 kilometres (129 miles)

Start Time (approx.): 9:25 a.m. local time/8:25 a.m. BST/1:25 p.m. ET

TV Info: ITV 4 (UK), Eurosport 1 (UK), NBC Sports (U.S.)

Live Stream: ITV Hub (UK), Eurosport Player (UK), NBC Sports App (U.S.)

Preview

Stage 18 has the potential to shake up the general classification and features two Category H climbs, as well as one Category 1 climb and a Category 3 ascent near the start:

Riders will build toward the first Category H challenge, Col d'Izoard, a 14.1-kilometre-long climb at a gradient of 7.3 percent. They'll then descend before facing the 23-kilometre Col du Galibier, the second half or so of which averages a gradient of around 9 percent.

Team support will be a huge resource entering this phase of Le Tour, one factor cycling writer Neal Rogers recently touched on when discussing how open this year's competition was:

Six-time green jersey-winner Peter Sagan holds the points classification lead in his bid to defend that title. His team, Bora Hansgrohe, have only one rider in the top 10 of the general classification, with sixth-place Emanuel Buchmann sitting two minutes, 14 seconds away from leader Alaphilippe.

The top order went largely unchanged in Stage 17 on Wednesday, when the leaders sat back in the peloton and left an opening for Italian Matteo Trentin to win his first Tour stage since 2014.

Despite the diminished competition at the head of the field, Trentin showed remarkable endurance to defend his own lead after staging an impressive break on the ascent, via NBSCN:

Deceuninck–Quick-Step rider Alaphilippe has astounded up until now in his efforts to become the first Frenchman to win the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault in 1985.

Defending champion Thomas remains in the running by his own merits and looks a genuine threat to overtake at some point, while his Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal is a supreme climber and is a second string to their bow should the champion crack. The Welshman remained resolute despite a crash in Stage 16:

The mountains could be where Team Ineos' best attributes come to the fore and aid Thomas in his bid for a second straight Tour win, but he will not have it all his own way.

Alaphilippe will have fervent French support, but he is not the only hope of the host nation. It could be the day Thibaut Pinot justifies his position as favourite for overall glory.

Pinot looked extremely strong in winning Stage 14, and he has indicated he will make a move on the Galibier if his legs are strong enough.

"All three stages are beautiful," Pinot said, per The Guardian's Jeremy Whittle, of the Alpine stretch, “but the hardest is the stage over the Galibier. If my legs are good I will attack there."

With Ineos and Jumbo-Visma at a disadvantage on account of the disqualification of Luke Rowe and Tony Martin following their clash on Wednesday, the stage could be set for Pinot to attack and Alaphilippe to defend.

It looks sure to be a day of drama, one not seen at the tour for a number of years because of the recent dominance of Ineos when they were known as Team Sky.