Polish domestique deluxe Michal Kwiatkowski got due reward for his years in service of Tour de France winners when he took stage 18 after a long breakaway.
With team mate Richard Carapaz, they took flight from the days break along with serial escapee Marc Hirschi of Sunweb.,
The most active rider of the race was keen to add to his stage win last week but crashed on a descent leaving the Ineos pair alone at the head of affairs.
With the gap big enough and the favourites not interested in attacking they had the luxury of sorting out who was going to win on the run in to the finish. It was brillant to see a clearly emotional Kwiatkowski cross the line for a rare, but really popular win.
Stage 10 saw Soren Kragh Andersen win the stage after a day that was only brightly animated by Remi Cavagna in a long lone breakaway that was always doomed but was entertaining enough to avoid switching the TV off.
Late in the stage a breakaway did escape including a number of good classics riders. Luke Rowe , Nils Pollit, Tim DeClercq and the king of Flanders Greg Van Avermaet made the split.
However Andersen was able to repeat the feat as he did on the way into Lyon escaping to win his 2nd stage of the Tour.
All eyes now move to the final weekend of the race and its opening and only time trial.
It’s been a really decent Tour so far so let’s hope for an exciting final weekend of action.
Fendrien 