An early breakaway of 20 didn’t last long. Then there was an attack by Meersman and Marcato, which again didn’t last. However, right before the intermediate sprint, a group of 16 fled and got the points: Duque, Posthuma, Delaplace, Devenyns, Tjallingii, Bookwalter, Irizar, Erviti, Hondo, Navardauskas, Perez, Urtasun, Ignlinsky, Monfort, and Roche. Hoogerland is the 16th man. Burghardt, Delage, and Silin were able to bridge to the breakaway.
With 115km left, the breakaway has almost 9 minutes.
With 99 to go, Zeits and Gilbert have attacked the peloton. They were soon joined by Barredo, Leipheimer, Riblon, Di Gregorio, and Koren. Meanwhile, Hondo have dropped from the lead group. Cavendish and Petacchi are being dropped from the high-paced peloton.
Leipheimer, Di Gregorio, and Westra have attacked the chasing group. They get 30” clear of the peloton and are joined by Gesink and Moncoutie. The rest of their groupare back to the peloton.
Duque, Delage, Erviti, Irizar and Bookwalter are all being dropped by the leaders.
Ignlinsky is the first man over the summit of the first climb. Hoogerland, Devenyns, and Monfort follow, but Ignlinsky continues solo.
Gilbert, Voeckler, and Vanendert bridge to the Leipheimer, but the peloton is closing in. A lot of the riders in the lead group are also falling back.
With 60km left, A. Schleck attacks and opens up a good gap. Rolland tried to follow, but couldn’t. With 58km remaining, he has a 45” lead over the group with the Yellow Jersey. Schleck was able to make it to Posthuma, who fell back from the leaders. Posthuma is working hard for his team leader. Three kilometers later, Schleck takes off on his own. He now has a 2 minute advantage over the other GC contenders who are working hard to chase him down.
No surprise, Ignlinaky is first over the 2nd summit. As the peloton continues the climb, Uran is dropped off the back.
Monfort waits on the descent for Schleck. The two soon join forces with Devenyns and Silin. Only Roche is between them and Ignlinsky. And soon, they are with Roche. Only Monfort seems willing to work with Schleck.
With 30km remaining, the Schleck group catches Ignlinsky. With 20km remaining, they have almost 4 minutes over the Contador group. But then there were 3, as only Ignlinsky and Roche can hold Schleck’s wheel.
The Yellow jersey group can not seem to work together. The leaders are gaining more and more of a gap. Schleck is soon up to 4’15” with 11km left.
With about 9km left, Evans attacks the Yellow Jersey group. Soon the others are back with him, but they are chasing A. Schleck harder.
With 2km from the finish, Contador is dropped!
In the final kilometer, F. Schelck attacked the Yellow Jersey group to make it a Schleck-Schleck 1-2. Voeckler keep the Yellow by just 16 seconds!!
Stage 18 Results:
1 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 6:07:56
2 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:02:07
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:02:15
4 Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:02:18
5 Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar 0:02:21
6 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 0:02:27
7 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD 0:02:33
8 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne 0:03:22
9 Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:03:25
Cavendish and others come in over 35 minutes later. They were not disqualified but they did loose points.
