Tour de France stage 18 preview: The first of a three-stage climbing finale

Voiron to Orcières-Merlette: 185.2km/3900m

This is the sort of Tour de France stage that breakaway riders circle months in advance.

With Alpe d’Huez and the Tour’s final decisive mountain battles stacked up in the Alps, many of the yellow jersey contenders may be content to save their bullets for the looming bigger prizes.

That could open the door for one of the strongest escapes of the 2026 Tour.

It has all the ingredients to favor an early break, and the final climb to Orcières-Merlette averages 6.7 percent at 7.1km, steep enough for the pure climbers but not so difficult that a well-organized breakaway can’t survive.

This opens three brutal stages in the mountains to close out the 2026 Tour. The mountain goats have been champing at the bit all month for these stages.