Riding behind O'Connor, Vingegaard and Pogačar closely watched each other in the final climb. Vingegaard attacked his Slovenian rival but Pogačar responded with ease. Vingegaard and his teammates had also tried to hurt the defending champion earlier in the day in the Col de La Madeleine, but their effors left Pogačar unfazed.

The 3-time champion keeps the yellow jersey and a lead of 4 minutes and 26 seconds with three days left as Ben O’Connor wins the challenging Alpine stage.

Tour de France overall leader Tadej Pogačar suffered a big scare when he bumped into the team car of chief rival Jonas Vingegaard before the start of the 18th stage then went on to cement his grip on the yellow jersey.