Nicolas Roche and Sam Bennett on the attack at Tour de France | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Nicolas Roche has been road captain to a fantastic group of riders on the Tour, but the Team Sunweb Irishman has also been on the attack himself; up the road again on today's stage 18*

Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) and Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) were both in the same large breakaway in the early part of today's stage 18 at the Tour de France.

When over 30 riders went clear in a very large move on the 175km stage from Méribel to La Roche-sur-Foron Roche was there looking for a stage win chance while Bennett made sure he was present for the intermediate sprint.

And when that sprint was reached Bennett took maximum points ahead of Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) and Matteo Trentin (CCC Team); the Carrick-on-Suir man's main rivals for the green jersey.

As soon as the sprint was won and the breakaway hit the climbs, Bennett drifted off the back and went back to the peloton. He later settled into the gruppetto and eventually finished 31:25 down in the same large group as Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation).

Roche, who has ridden very well on this race and been on the attack repeatedly, persevered for longer up front and proved one of the strongest in the escape as the road first went up.

While Roche rode well, by the time the front of the race went over the first climb of the day, the Cormet de Roseland, there were only five left from the original 32 riders.

They were Marc Hirschi (Sunweb), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) and the Ineos Grenadiers duo of Michal Kwiatkowski and Richard Carapaz.

Hirschi took the battle to Carapaz for the climbers' jersey but on the descent of the Col des Saisies he crashed and lost his place in the group after Edet had already been dropped.

Kwiatkowski and Carapaz share a memorable win at the end of an otherwise forgettable Tour for their team. However, while Egan Bernal has gone home, Carapaz now has the lead in the climbers' classification to add to their 1-2 today

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The Ineos Grenadiers duo then dropped Bilboa on the
penultimate climb, the Plateau des Glieres, leaving Kwiatkowski and Carapaz to
ride to the finish for a stage 1-2 to salvage something from a trying race for
their team. Carapaz also claimed the climbers’ jersey today.

Behind them, all of the men they had been with were caught and dropped by the favourites' group, which was led home by Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) for 3rd.

And as race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) were in that favourites' group, 1:53 down on the stage winner, there was no change at the very top of the standings, though some of those in the top 10 traded places.

Wout van Aert on the late gravel section today. He has two stage wins under his belt so far, one in a bunch sprint and the other in a sprint from a reduced peloton. On a hard day in the Alps today, the final mountain stage, he was was in the select group and was 3rd despite working all day for team mate and race leader Primoz Roglic

Roglic leads Pogacar by 57 seconds with yesterday's stage
winner Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) in 3rd place at 1:27.

Richie Porte (Trek Segafredo) is 4th at 3:06 and as he
survived a puncture scare today the top four overall remained unchanged.

However, Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren) has jumped two
places to 5th, at 3:28 off yellow. Enric Mas (Movistar) also moved up two
places, to 6th, some 4:19 off the race lead.

Adam Yates (Mitchelton Scott) and Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling) both dropped two places to 7th and 8th overall; at 5:55 and 6:05 respectively.

Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo Visma) remains 9th, at 7:24, and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) remains in 10th at 12:12