LA ROCHE-SUR-FORON, France (AP) — Paris, and victory on the Tour de France, are virtually inside attain of Primoz Roglic.

The Slovenian rider safely negotiated the final really mountainous stage of this 12 months’s race on Thursday, shifting an enormous step nearer to including what can be his first Tour win to the Spanish Vuelta title he conquered final 12 months.

Polish rider Michal Kwiatkowski received the saw-tooth Stage 18, up and down over a leg-burning succession of 5 Alpine ascents. His first stage victory on the Tour was additionally the primary at this race for his Ineos Grenadiers crew, a comfort prize after its chief, 2019 Tour champion Egan Bernal, withdrew Wednesday having struggled because the weekend.

By avoiding any mishaps on a brutal stage that included a treacherous stretch of gravel path that punctured the skinny entrance tire of one other high contender, Australian Richie Porte, Roglic has simply two extra phases to digest earlier than having the ability to experience into Paris on Sunday with the yellow jersey on his shoulders to the end.

Kwiatkowski completed arm-over-arm with teammate Richard Carapaz. They didn’t dash to the road, as a substitute crossing collectively, all smiles, their faces caked with mud, with Kwiatkowski’s entrance tire simply forward. Kwiatkowski is a former world champion and veteran of seven Excursions who probably would have received different phases prior to now had he not devoted a lot of his profession to serving to different riders win the Tour title.

Carapaz stated Ineos’ objectives for the day had been each profitable the stage and placing him within the red-spotted jersey awarded to riders who vacuum up essentially the most factors on the Tour’s climbs. They did each. With Carapaz having secured the jersey on the ascents, the Ecuadoran rider then graciously left the win to his loyal teammate who had helped him up the climbs.

”Mainly, he determined,” Kwiatkowski stated of Carapaz, who final 12 months grew to become Ecuador’s first Grand Tour champion by profitable the Giro d’Italia. ”He is an unbelievable particular person.”

”We’re going to have a good time large time tonight as a result of all of us deserve it after so many phases,” he stated. ”We put in a present at this time.”

Additional again, in his personal battle to maintain the general race lead, Roglic once more saved Tadej Pogacar, his Slovenian countryman and closest rival, firmly in his grasp. Roglic surged forward of Pogacar on the dusty gravel monitor on the high of the day’s hardest climb, making clear that he was in no temper to cede even seconds so near the end in Paris.

Roglic stays 57 seconds forward of Pogacar total, and has a lead of 1 minute, 27 seconds over Colombian rider Miguel Angel Lopez, nonetheless third.

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