You know those days where you look at a bike race profile and just think, "Someone is going to go home today"? That was stage 18 Tour de France 2025. It wasn't just another day in the Alps. Honestly, it was a massacre.
Vif to Courchevel. 171.5 kilometers. 5,450 meters of climbing.
That last number is the one that matters. If you aren't a bike nerd, let me put that in perspective: it’s basically like climbing the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa, seven times in a row. On a bicycle. After racing for two and a half weeks.
Most people expected a classic Pogačar vs. Vingegaard cage match. We've seen it before. The script usually goes: Visma-Lease a Bike drills the pace, Pogačar sits there looking bored, and then they explode at the summit. But the stage 18 Tour de France 2025 didn't follow the script. Instead of the "Big Two" taking the glory, we got the Ben O'Connor show, and frankly, it was way more interesting.
The Triple Threat: Glandon, Madeleine, and Loze
The organizers didn't give the riders any time to find their legs. Basically, the race started and then immediately went uphill. We’re talking about three Hors Catégorie (HC) climbs—the "beyond category" monsters that make pro riders question their career choices.
First up was the Col du Glandon. 21.7 kilometers long. It’s a grind. Then, without much room to breathe, they hit the Col de la Madeleine. This one is nasty because it’s steeper—nearly 8% on average for 19 kilometers.
By the time the peloton reached the valley before the final climb, they looked like extras from a zombie movie.
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But the real story of the stage 18 Tour de France 2025 was the final ascent: the Col de la Loze. They’ve done this climb before, but never from the Courchevel side. It’s 26.4 kilometers of sheer misery.
The "new" approach via the Courchevel altiport added a layer of psychological torture. The road is irregular. It’s not a steady 7% where you can just find a rhythm and suffer quietly. It’s a series of "walls" followed by slight flats that never actually feel flat.
Why Ben O'Connor's Win Was So Weird (and Great)
If you'd asked anyone at the start line in Vif who was winning, nobody would have said Ben O'Connor.
He's a great rider, sure. But against Pogačar in "revenge mode" on the Col de la Loze? Not a chance. Except, O'Connor didn't wait for the favorites. He got into a massive breakaway early on, which felt like a suicide mission at the time.
Here is what actually happened:
- O'Connor attacked with about 41 kilometers to go, way before the steepest parts of La Loze.
- While the GC guys were busy staring each other down, he just kept gaining time.
- He hit the summit solo, 1 minute and 45 seconds ahead of the Yellow Jersey.
It was one of those "how did they let him do that?" moments. Pogačar and Vingegaard were so obsessed with each other that they forgot there was a bike race happening two minutes up the road. O'Connor looked absolutely shattered at the finish, and who could blame him? He was riding at 2,304 meters of altitude. At that height, the air is so thin you feel like you’re breathing through a cocktail straw.
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The Tactical Blunder That Defined the Day
Everyone was waiting for Jonas Vingegaard to replicate his 2023 performance where he "cracked" Pogačar on this same mountain. Visma-Lease a Bike actually tried. They set a pace on the Madeleine that dropped almost everyone.
But here’s the thing: Pogačar didn't crack this time.
Actually, they both looked incredibly strong, which ironically led to a stalemate. Since neither could drop the other, they basically neutralized themselves. It’s the classic cycling paradox—two guys are so good that they both end up losing the stage because they refuse to let the other one breathe.
"I just had to keep my own pace," O'Connor said after the stage. "I knew they'd be playing games behind me."
He was right. While the "aliens" were playing tactical chess, the Australian was just pedaling for his life.
The Survival Statistics
- Total Elevation: 5,450m (Most in the 2025 Tour).
- Winning Speed: O'Connor averaged about 22.5 km/h on the final climb.
- Altitude: The finish at 2,304m was the highest of the entire 2025 race.
What Stage 18 Changed for the GC
While O'Connor took the stage, the battle for the podium was where the real drama lived.
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Florian Lipowitz, the young German from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, proved he wasn't a fluke. He finished just behind the favorites and solidified his spot in the top three. It’s rare to see a "new" name hold his own against the Pogačar/Vingegaard era, but Lipowitz looks like the real deal.
On the flip side, several top-ten contenders saw their podium dreams die on the Madeleine. The "attrition war" that experts predicted was real. When you have three HC climbs in a single day, there is nowhere to hide. If your legs aren't 100%, you don't just lose ten seconds—you lose ten minutes.
How to Ride the Col de la Loze Yourself
If you're crazy enough to want to try this route, don't expect it to feel like the TV version.
First off, the road from Courchevel to the summit of the Col de la Loze is a "piste cyclable"—a dedicated bike path. That sounds nice and friendly, right? Wrong. Because it’s a bike path, the engineers didn't have to follow the rules for car roads. They just paved over the steepest parts of the mountain. Some of those ramps hit 11% or 12%, and at 2,200 meters, that feels like 20%.
If you're planning a trip to the 3 Vallées to tackle this, here's the reality check:
- Gear Down: Don't even think about showing up with a standard crankset. You want a 34x34 ratio or better.
- Timing: The weather at 2,300 meters is unpredictable. Even in July, you can get a freezing thunderstorm in the afternoon.
- Pacing: If you go hard on the Glandon and Madeleine, you will "park" it (stop moving) on the Loze.
The stage 18 Tour de France 2025 will be remembered as the day the script broke. It wasn't about the expected duel; it was about the grit of a solo attacker and a mountain that remains the final boss of French cycling.
To understand how this impacted the final result in Paris, you should look back at the time gaps created on the Madeleine climb. Those gaps forced several teams to change their strategy for the final stages. If you're analyzing the race, focus on the "wattage per kilogram" sustained by the leaders on the second climb of the day—that’s where the damage was actually done, even if the cameras were focused on the finish line. Don't just watch the highlights; look at the finishing times of the middle-of-the-pack riders to see the true scale of the carnage.