Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
Cycling in Yorkshire & Beyond
Stage 17 | Stage 18 | Stage 19
Stage 18 of the Tour de France 2024 is a 179.5km hilly stage from Gap to Barcelonnette.
The parcours crosses the Lac de Serre Ponçon, then heads into the hills. The Côte de Saint-Apollinaire and the Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées provide opportunities for puncheurs like Mathieu van der Poel or Ben Healy to break clear.
These are video highlights of Stage 18.
This is the Stage 18 blog/race report.
Race Details | Poll | Map & Profile | Timings | Videos | Food & Drink | Route Notes | Favourites
| Date | Thursday 18th July 2024 |
|---|---|
| Stage classification | Hilly |
| Distance | 179.5km |
| Intermediate sprint | Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur |
| Climbs | Col du Festre (Cat. 3) Côte de Corps (Cat. 3) Col de Manse (Cat. 3) Côte de Saint-Apollinaire (Cat. 3) Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées (Cat. 3) |
| Total climbing | 3,100m |
Vote for one of the main contenders to win Stage 18.
This is a map of the route of Stage 18, Tour de France 2024.
This is a zoom-able map of the route of Stage 18 of the 2024 Tour de France.
Note: this routemap was produced a long time in advance of the race, and could be subject to changes.
This is the profile of Stage 18 Tour de France 2024.
| Caravan | Fast Schedule | Slow Schedule | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Time (départ fictif) | 1100 |
1300 |
1300 |
| Start Time (départ réel) | 1120 |
1320 |
1320 |
| Intermediate Sprint Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur | 1330 |
1518 | 1530 |
| Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées Climb | 1454 |
1634 |
1654 |
| Finish Line (179km) | 1556 |
1730 |
1756 |
This is a video of the route of Stage 18 Tour de France 2024.
The Tour de France finished in Gap (the start town today) on Stage 16 of the 2011 edition. Thor Hushovd beat Edvald Boasson Hagen that day.
The Tour de France is in the Alps today, albeit the Hautes Alpes rather than Savoie or Haute Savoie, so this is the land of Savoyarde specialities - fondue, raclette, pierrade and tartiflette.
Raclette involves a big wheel of cheese and an apparatus with a heating element. The element melts the top layer of cheese, and you scrape the melted cheese off (racler, to scrape) and eat it with potatoes, charcuterie and salad.
Vin de Savoie is often drunk with a traditional Savoyarde meal, but as we're in the southern Alps a Provencal rosé is justified.
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The stage starts in Gap (départ fictif).
Gap is a town of 41,000 people. It is the Préfecture of the Hautes-Alpes département.
Its name evolved from Vappum, somehow or other.
It was inhabited by the Celto-Ligurian tribe the Tricorii, and conquered by the Romans in 125-4 BC.
A Roman road was built along the valley of the Durance from 14 to 6 BC, linking Turin to Sisteron. Gap (Vapincum) was one of the stations along the route. It was a Roman camp, occupied by around 360 men.
Napoléon Bonaparte stopped in Gap in March 1815 after leaving Elba, at the start of his 100 days that ended in defeat at Waterloo.
Gap is twinned with Pinerolo, Italy.
The départ réel is to the south west of Gap town centre, on the D994 leading to La Freissinouse.
The first little bit of the parcours is the same as yesterday's route into Gap, but in reverse. The riders head to La Roche-des-Arnauds before deviating from the Stage 17 course by turning right at Le Boutariq on the D937.
This is the start of a climb, the Col du Festre.
The road follows a stream, La Beoux, and climbs to the Col du Festre at 1,441m.
The climb is 3.9km at an average gradient of 6.3%. The summit comes after 32.2km raced.
The route continues to Agnières-en-Dévoluy, very close to La Joue du Loup - the ski resort that's linked to Super Dévoluy, where yesterday's stage finished.
The riders head past the Forêt de Malmort and reach Saint-Disdier.
Then it's downhill through woods, roughly following the course of la Soulise.
The road reaches the Barrage du Sautet, at the end of the Lac du Sautet.
The Lac du Sautet is a manmade lake, created between 1930 and 1935 by a barrage of Le Drac. Hydro-electric power is produced here.
The Pont du Sautet, which the riders cross, overlooks the barrage.
The lake has a water sports centre and a beach.
The riders cross the Drac at the Lac du Sautet barrage and continue round the lake.
The road leaves the water's edge to climb to the lake's main town, Corps. This is the second categorised climb on the stage.
The Côte de Corps is 2.1km at an average 7.2%, to a height of 930m after 57.5km raced.
At Corps, Stage 18 joins the N65 Route Napoléon for a short stretch.
The Route Napoléon is the road Bonaparte followed after leaving Elba in February 1815.
Bonaparte was sent to Elba in April 1814 and a Bourbon King, Louis XVIII, restored in France. By February 1815, many of Bonaparte's old soldiers were disgruntled with the new arrangements.
Napoléon left Elba at the end of February 1815 and landed near Antibes, on the south coast of France.
'I will arrive in Paris without firing a shot', he exclaimed. He headed north west on a bad road to Grasse, Digne-les-Bains, Sisteron and Gap, intending to pick up recruits on the way. This road is what is known today as the Route Napoléon.
Continuing on his way, he was welcomed in Grenoble and Lyon, and made it to Paris by 20th March 1815.
This led to Napoléon's final defeat at Waterloo, and subsequent exile to St Helena.
Stage 18 takes the Route Napoléon as far as Chauffayer.
It then forks off on the D23 up to Les Costes and La Motte-en-Champsaur. Then it's down to Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur, where the intermediate sprint takes place.
The intermediate sprint at Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur comes after 84.3km raced.
Saint-Bonnet holds a market on Mondays and Thursdays, so the day the Tour de France passes through - Thursday 18th July 2024 - is market day.
The race crosses the Drac again near Saint-Julien-en-Champsaur, and climbs the other side of the river towards the Puy de Manse.
This is the next categorised climb, the Col de Manse.
The Col de Manse climb is 5.1km at an average 3.6%, to a height of 1,280m after 97.3km raced. The col itself is just off the race route.
The descent is to La Bâtie-Neuve.
Now the race follows the N94 to Chorges. Chris Froome won a time trial from Embrun to Chorges on Stage 17 of the Tour de France 2013.
Next the riders head up into the hills again.
This time, it's on the D9 to Saint-Apollinaire, overlooked by the Aiguilles de Chabrières and the Réallon ski resort. All 113 permanent residents of Saint-Apollinaire should be out cheering the riders on.
The Côte de Saint-Apollinaire climb is 7km at an average 5.5%, to a height of 1,286m after 121km raced.
Réallon has 6 lifts and 30km of pistes, which are between 1,560m and 2,146m.
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Now the riders descend via Chérines to the Lac de Serre-Ponçon.
They cross the lake on the Pont de Savines, to reach Savines-le-Lac on the opposite shore.
The Lac de Serre-Ponçon is a reservoir that was created by building a dam in 1961. Around 1,500 people and three villages were displaced.
The lake collects water from the Durance and Ubaye rivers. A hydro-electric plant generates electricity, and the water management provided by the dam enables a further 15 hydro-electric projects downstream.
The Chapelle Saint-Michel, built on a hill in the 1100s, survives on an island in the lake.
The original Savines was destroyed by the lake, so Savines-le-Lac was rebuilt with modern architecture.
From Savines-le-Lac, the D954 takes the race south west through woods above the lake, and up the Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées.
The Côte des Demoiselles Coiffées is a Category 3 climb. It is 3.6km at an average 5.4%, to a height of 1,031m after 139.1km raced.
The Demoiselles Coiffées are rock formations, also known as fairy chimneys or hoodoos.
They are caused by erosion. Water erodes the rock, but a resistant block provides a 'hat' which prevents the column underneath it being eroded.
The road descends to Le Sauze-du-Lac, which has a public beach, then the race makes its way up the Ubaye valley to Le Lauzet-Ubaye and beyond to the finish at Barcelonnette.
The race is on the main D900 until Les Thuiles, which gets its names from pottery factories that existed here, then it diverts onto the minor D109 on the other side of the Ubaye.
The riders join the D902, which brings them past the golf course at Bois Chenu and along Avenue Emile Aubert.
The road crosses the Ubaye again and becomes Avenue de Nice then Place Aimé Gassier.
The finish line is on Place Aimé Gassier.
The Stage 18 finish town is Barcelonnette, the biggest town in the Ubaye valley. It's close to the ski resorts of Pra-Loup and Le Sauze.
The area was inhabited by a Celto-Ligurian people called the Vesubians before the Roman conquest.
The town itself was founded (or re-founded) by Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, in 1231. It passed between the Counts of Provence and the House of Savoy several times.
A significant number of Barcelonnette residents emigrated to Mexico between 1850 and 1950. Jean Baptiste Ebrard was one of them, and he founded a department store in Mexico called Liverpool.
Barcelonnette is twinned with Valle de Bravo in Mexico.
This is a hilly course made for Classics riders and puncheurs.
While a win by a GC rider can never be ruled out, let's hope for a breakaway win. Fred Wright has now dropped out of the Tour de France, but maybe his teammate Matej Mohoric will win today.
Romain Bardet could be in with a chance of a second stage win in the 2024 Tour de France.
Who do you think will win Stage 18 of the 2024 Tour de France?
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