Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) has asserted his superiority over reigning Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) with a huge finish on the summit of Hautacam on stage 18 today.
The stage was once again marked by the big two pulling clear - at will - from the other general classification riders in the race. All the while Vingegaard had team mate Wout van Aert up the road going for the stage win with Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Daniel Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) for company.
And when Vingegaard and Pogačar eventually overhauled those breakaway men on the final climb, Van Aert still had plenty left. He went to the front of their small group and squeezed on the pedals, with Pogačar dropped some 4.4km from the finish line.
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Once the gap to the Slovenian was established, Van Aert ran out of gas and Vingegaard powered his way up the final slopes of the climb, to take the stage win and add to his lead over his general classification rivals. By the time he was done, there was no disputing who the strongest climber on this race has been.
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Behind him Pogačar - who had crashed a little earlier on the stage - kept working away but the gap between him and the yellow jersey simply continued to open on the climb packed with spectators and was just over one minute on the line. That time loss, of 1:04, means Pogačar is now 3:26 down on Vingegaard.
Today, Van Aert took 3rd at 2:10 and though he had a chance of going into the climbers' jersey - to add to his win wrapped up already in the points classification - it was his team mate Vingegaard who took the lead in the climbers' competition today.
After Van Aert came Geraint Thomas in 4th, at 2:54; the 37-year-old Welshman turning back the clock on this race but simply able to live with Vingegaard and Pogačar when they turn it on on the big mountains. Behind Thomas came David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), in 5th at 2:58. Those placings cement Thomas's and Gaudu's positions in 3rd and 4th overall; now a massive 8:00 and 11:05 off yellow.
Gaudu said after the stage he was delighted with his performance and his race is for 4th in the final overall and, he added, was against Nairo Quintana (Arkea Samsic), who was 13th today at 5:22 and is now 5th overall at 13:35.
