Tour De France Stage 18 Predictions, Betting Tips & Odds (Pau > Luz Ardiden - 15.7.2021)
- Written by David Bet
Stage 18, a 129km run from Pau to Luz Ardiden, is the last day on the Pyrenees. It features four categorized climbs, including the legendary Col du Tourmalet. More glory for Pogaçar? This post contains our Tour De France Stage 18 predictions, best odds, recommended bets on Winner, Top 3 & Head to Head, promotions & no deposit free bets!
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Tour De France Stage 18 Betting Preview
This is the 6th and final mountain stage of the 2021 Tour de France. The first phase of the race traverses the foothills of the Pyrenees and it's undulating. Riders will have to climb two Category 4 ascents, one after only 10.6km and the other before the Intermediate Sprint in Pouzac, 54.6km into the stage.After passing Sainte-Marie-de-Campan we have the day’s first major challenge: the Hors Categorie Col du Tourmalet. On this side the ascent totals 17.1 kilometres, while the average gradient sits at 7.1%.
The first rider to the summit wins the Souvenir Jacques Goddet award, and a cash prize of 5,000 Euro.
Form the crest of the Tourmalet, the riders will descend to the final mountain of the 2021 Tour de France: Luz Ardiden. This is a 13.3km Hors Categorie ascent with an average gradient of 7.4%.
The finish line is on the summit of this climb, so if any of the GC riders have anything left, now is the time to put all their cards on the table.
Stage 18 Favourites
Tadej Pogacar underlined his status as Tour de France king with victory atop the Col du Portet on Wednesday and is the #1 favourite for today. But probably, he will take no risks and save his legs for the Individual Time Trial.The fight for the podium between Jonas Vingegaard, Richard Carapaz, Rigobert Urán and Ben O’Connor should be fierce on the 13-kilometer finishing climb.
Vingegaard and Carapaz looked more brilliant than Uran and O'Connor on the Col du Portet. Even if Vingegaard is strong enough to win the stage, he doesn’t have the team at his disposal to control the breakaway as team Jumbo-Visma has been heavily depleted so far.
Team Ineos and team EF are the only teams that could keep things thigh, expectially if Rigoberto Uran and Richard Carapaz will try to improve their position in the general clasisfication (the Ecuadorian is third few seconds behind Vingegaard, the Colombian is out of the podium at the moment).
We expect Uran to perform better today but he should not have the legs to drop the Jumbo Visma and Ineos captains.
Richie Porte, Jonathan Castroviejo, Geraint Thomas and Michal Kwiatkowski could be used to up the tempo in the peloton or could be sent in the breakaway and used as satellited rider before the final climb.
Enric Mas and Wilco Kelderman will try to stay close to the yellow jersey in order to cement their berth in the top 10 of the GC. They hardly will go for the stage win.
Long shots?
With yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar winning yesterday’s stage and extending his overall lead, the breakaway could have enough of a gap to see the finish line before GC contenders.KOM leader Wout Poels have a narrow margin over Pogaçar, Michael Woods and Nairo Quintana. So we expect fireworks on the Tourmalet (not from Pogaçar of course).
Wout van Aert have also expressed a clear interest in the polka-dot jersey and will closely follow Poels.
Israel Start-Up Nation worked hard to set-up Michael Woods for the stage win on Stage 17 and we believe they will do the same on Thursday.
French riders are yet to win a stage this year. There are many Frenchmen with a chance to win - Pierre Latour, Valentin Madouas, Pierre Rolland, Kenny Elissonde, etc..
David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin are fighting for a top 10 position in the General Classification and will not be allowed to escape.
Other breakaway hopefuls are Ion Izaguirre, Sergio Higuita, Esteban Chaves, Dan Martin, Kasper Asgreen, Matej Mohoric, Bauke Mollema, Dylan Teuns, Miguel Angel Lopez and Alejandro Valverde.
Stage 18 Profile
Tour De France Stage 18 Predictions
The section below contains our experts' betting tips on the Tour De France Stage 18 (Winner, Top 3 and Head To Head recommended bets). 
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