Barguil wins Tour's Izoard stage, Froome keeps yellow

Col d'Izoard - Frenchman Warren Barguil won his second stage of the Tour de France on the imposing Col d'Izoard on Thursday as compatriot Romain Bardet snatched back four seconds from overall leader Chris Froome.

Bardet finished third on the day to take some bonus seconds that lifted him above Rigoberto Uran into second overall and closed the gap to Froome to 23sec.

Colombian Darwin Atapuma finished second, 20sec behind Barguil with Bardet winning the sprint for third against Froome and Uran.

But with only Saturday's time-trial left in which to make a significant difference to the standings, reigning champion Froome looks set to claim a fourth Tour de France title.

"I'm happy to have passed the Alps without problems this year," said Froome, 32.

"The Alps are always the toughest for me. Now I'm looking forward to the time-trial in Marseille and we'll see."

It was a thrilling battle on the final hors category climb at the end of the 179.5km Alpine 18th stage from Briancon to the Col d'Izoard.

Atapuma was part of an original 54-man breakaway that splintered over the two huge climbs of the day.

He reeled in Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko halfway up the Izoard climb while the peloton led by Bardet's AG2R team, at one point eight minutes back, started to close in.

Barguil made his move with 6km to go but still had two minutes to make up on Atapuma, catching him with 1.4km left and leaving him behind inside the final kilometre to win the first ever stage finish on the Izoard.

"I'm just living in my dream at the moment, it's just crazy," said Barguil, who also won the 13th stage on Bastille Day, the French national holiday.

"After a lot of bad luck I've shown finally my real potential to everybody."

Barguil, who had already sewn up the king of the mountains polkadot jersey earlier in the day, leapt above two-time former winner Alberto Contador into ninth overall.

"I'm still in the clouds, I've left the earth," said Barguil.

"It's an exceptional day, I never imagined I could win on the Izoard."

Behind that, Bardet launched an attack 3km from the finish but Froome and Colombian Uran stuck to him like glue.

Briton Froome attacked next but couldn't stay clear and once they hit the final kilometre it was a battle of wills to the line at a vertiginous 2,360-metres above sea level.

"I tried to distance Rigoberto Uran and Romain Bardet but it was almost impossible today," added Froome.

Uran gave up two seconds and dropped to 29sec off Froome, but is widely regarded a better time-trialist than Bardet.

"I thought I was going to suffocate on the line," said Bardet.

"I gave absolutely everything."

Italian Fabio Aru was struggling over the final 6km and having started the day in fourth at 53sec, dropped below Froome's Spanish team-mate Mikel Landa (1min 36sec) to fifth at 1:55.

Behind that there was not change for Ireland's Dan Martin in sixth, Briton Simon Yates in seventh, and leader of the young rider's white jersey competition, and Louis Meintjes of South Africa in eighth.

Results from stage 18 of the Tour de France, a 179.5km run from Briancon to a summit finish at Col d'Izoard on Thursday:

1. Warren Barguil (FRA/SUN) 4hr 40min 33sec

2. Darwin Atapuma (COL/EAU) at 0:20sec

3. Romain Bardet (FRA/ALM) 0:20.

4. Chris Froome (GBR/SKY) 0:20.

5. Rigoberto Uran (COL/CAN) 0:22.

6. Mikel Landa (ESP/SKY) 0:32.

7. Louis Meintjes (RSA/EAU) 0:37.

8. Dan Martin (IRL/QST) 0:39.

9. Simon Yates (GBR/ORI) 0:59.

10. Alberto Contador (ESP/TRE) 1:09.

11. Nairo Quintana (COL/MOV) 1:18.

12. Carlos Betancur (COL/MOV) 1:22.

13. Fabio Aru (ITA/AST) 1:22.

14. Tony Gallopin (FRA/LOT) 1:37.

15. Brice Feillu (FRA/TFO) 1:54.

16. Mikel Nieve (ESP/SKY) 2:15.

17. Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ/AST) 2:54.

18. Andrew Talansky (USA/CAN) 3:01.

19. Bauke Mollema (NED/TRE) 3:01.

20. Serge Pauwels (BEL/DDT) 3:04.

21. Alexis Vuillermoz (FRA/ALM) 3:17.

22. Tiesj Benoot (BEL/LOT) 3:23.

23. Marco Minnaard (NED/AJW) 3:34.

24. Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev (KAZ/AST) 3:49.

25. Daniel Navarro (ESP/COF) 3:54.

26. Romain Hardy (FRA/TFO) 3:54.

27. Damiano Caruso (ITA/BMC) 3:58.

28. Roman Kreuziger (CZE/ORI) 4:08.

29. Jan Bakelants (BEL/ALM) 4:13.

30. Amal Moinard (FRA/BMC) 4:15.

31. Emanuel Buchmann (GER/BOR) 4:15.

32. Rudy Molard (FRA/FDJ) 4:40.

33. Nicolas Roche (IRL/BMC) 4:59.

34. Gianluca Brambilla (ITA/QST) 6:21.

35. Eduardo Sepulveda (ARG/TFO) 6:41.

36. Daryl Impey (RSA/ORI) 6:41.

37. Robert Kiserlovski (CRO/KAT) 6:41.

38. Mathias Frank (SUI/ALM) 6:41.

39. Pierre Rolland (FRA/CAN) 6:41.

40. Guillaume Martin (FRA/AJW) 7:20.

41. Thomas Degand (BEL/AJW) 7:41.

42. Sergio Henao (COL/SKY) 8:12.

43. Janez Brajkovic (SLO/BAH) 8:30.

44. Tsgabu Grmay (ETH/BAH) 8:30.

45. Maurits Lammertink (NED/KAT) 8:43.

46. Diego Ulissi (ITA/EAU) 8:48.

47. Simon Geschke (GER/SUN) 9:27.

48. Sylvain Chavanel (FRA/DEN) 10:34.

49. Thomas Voeckler (FRA/DEN) 10:34.

50. Kristijan urasek (CRO/EAU) 10:46.

51. Romain Sicard (FRA/DEN) 10:57.

52. Andrey Zeits (KAZ/AST) 11:30.

53. Ben Gastauer (LUX/ALM) 11:37.

54. Jarlinson Pantano (COL/TRE) 12:01.

55. Michael Valgren (DEN/AST) 12:01.

56. Haimar Zubeldia (ESP/TRE) 12:01.

57. Laurens ten Dam (NED/SUN) 12:07.

58. Thomas De Gendt (BEL/LOT) 12:48.

59. Timo Roosen (NED/LNL) 13:00.

60. Cyril Gautier (FRA/ALM) 13:40.

61. Zdenek Stybar (CZE/QST) 13:41.

62. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL/SKY) 13:41.

63. Michael Schr (SUI/BMC) 13:41.

64. Luis Angel Mat (ESP/COF) 14:40.

65. Nicolas Edet (FRA/COF) 14:40.

66. Damien Howson (AUS/ORI) 16:10.

67. Simon Clarke (AUS/CAN) 16:10.

68. Tony Martin (GER/KAT) 16:39.

69. Jrgen Roelandts (BEL/LOT) 16:52.

70. Axel Domont (FRA/ALM) 17:42.

71. Oliver Naesen (BEL/ALM) 17:42.

72. Laurent Pichon (FRA/TFO) 17:42.

73. Jens Keukeleire (BEL/ORI) 17:42.

74. Koen de Kort (NED/TRE) 17:42.

75. Jasha Stterlin (GER/MOV) 17:42.

76. Tiago Machado (POR/KAT) 17:42.

77. Lars Bak (DEN/LOT) 17:42.

78. Angelo Tulik (FRA/DEN) 17:50.

79. Paul Martens (GER/LNL) 18:26.

80. Elie Gesbert (FRA/TFO) 18:26.

81. Maxime Bouet (FRA/TFO) 18:26.

82. Danilo Wyss (SUI/BMC) 18:44.

83. Greg Van Avermaet (BEL/BMC) 18:44.

84. Pierre-Luc Prichon (FRA/TFO) 19:42.

85. Florian Vachon (FRA/TFO) 19:42.

86. Dmitriy Gruzdev (KAZ/AST) 20:03.

87. Matteo Bono (ITA/EAU) 22:19.

88. Esteban Chaves (COL/ORI) 22:19.

89. Nathan Brown (USA/CAN) 22:43.

90. Vasil Kiryienka (BLR/SKY) 23:50.

91. Andriy Grivko (UKR/AST) 23:50.

92. Dion Smith (NZL/AJW) 23:50.

93. Jack Bauer (NZL/QST) 23:50.

94. Ben Swift (GBR/EAU) 23:50.

95. Stephen Cummings (GBR/DDT) 23:50.

96. Imanol Erviti (ESP/MOV) 23:50.

97. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (BEL/AJW) 23:50.

98. Pieter Vanspeybrouck (BEL/AJW) 23:50.

99. Andrey Amador (CRC/MOV) 23:50.

100. Perrig Qumeneur (FRA/DEN) 23:50.

101. Pierre Latour (FRA/ALM) 23:50.

102. Lilian Calmejane (FRA/DEN) 23:50.

103. Jesus Herrada (ESP/MOV) 23:50.

104. Dylan van Baarle (NED/CAN) 23:50.

105. Yukiya Arashiro (JPN/BAH) 23:50.

106. Dimitri Claeys (BEL/COF) 24:19.

107. Nils Politt (GER/KAT) 24:19.

108. Marco Marcato (ITA/EAU) 25:46.

109. Javier Moreno (ESP/BAH) 25:46.

110. Ondrej Cink (CZE/BAH) 25:46.

111. Sonny Colbrelli (ITA/BAH) 25:48.

112. Alessandro De Marchi (ITA/BMC) 26:05.

113. Stefan Kung (SUI/BMC) 26:26.

114. Primoz Roglic (SLO/LNL) 26:26.

115. Alberto Bettiol (ITA/CAN) 27:28.

116. Christian Knees (GER/SKY) 28:33.

117. Ramon Sinkeldam (NED/SUN) 28:33.

118. Michael Matthews (AUS/SUN) 28:33.

119. Julien Vermote (BEL/QST) 28:33.

120. Fabio Sabatini (ITA/QST) 28:33.

121. Yoann Offredo (FRA/AJW) 28:33.

122. Jay McCarthy (AUS/BOR) 28:33.

123. Luke Rowe (GBR/SKY) 28:33.

124. Scott Thwaites (GBR/DDT) 28:33.

125. Roy Curvers (NED/SUN) 28:33.

126. Grega Bole (SLO/BAH) 28:33.

127. Frederik Backaert (BEL/AJW) 28:33.

128. Adam Hansen (AUS/LOT) 28:33.

129. Reto Hollenstein (SUI/KAT) 28:33.

130. Patrick Bevin (NZL/CAN) 28:33.

131. Olivier Le Gac (FRA/FDJ) 28:33.

132. Robert Wagner (GER/LNL) 28:33.

133. Andrea Pasqualon (ITA/AJW) 28:33.

134. Andr Greipel (GER/LOT) 28:33.

135. Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA/DDT) 28:33.

136. Florian Snchal (FRA/COF) 28:33.

137. Michael Albasini (SUI/ORI) 28:33.

138. Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR/DDT) 28:33.

139. Pawel Poljanski (POL/BOR) 28:33.

140. Rdiger Selig (GER/BOR) 28:33.

141. Maciej Bodnar (POL/BOR) 28:33.

142. Vegard Laengen (NOR/EAU) 28:33.

143. Dylan Groenewegen (NED/LNL) 28:33.

144. Jonathan Castroviejo (ESP/MOV) 28:33.

145. Tom Leezer (NED/LNL) 28:33.

146. Jaco Venter (RSA/DDT) 28:33.

147. Mathew Hayman (AUS/ORI) 28:33.

148. Taylor Phinney (USA/CAN) 28:33.

149. Daniele Bennati (ITA/MOV) 28:33.

150. Albert Timmer (NED/SUN) 28:33.

151. Mike Teunissen (NED/SUN) 28:33.

152. Nikias Arndt (GER/SUN) 28:33.

153. Rick Zabel (GER/KAT) 28:33.

154. Borut Bozic (SLO/BAH) 28:33.

155. Yohann Gne (FRA/DEN) 29:02.

156. Thomas Boudat (FRA/DEN) 29:18.

157. Markel Irizar (ESP/TRE) 29:56.

158. Bernhard Eisel (AUT/DDT) 29:56.

159. John Degenkolb (GER/TRE) 29:56.

160. Marco Haller (AUT/KAT) 29:56.

161. Michael Gogl (AUT/TRE) 29:56.

162. Alexander Kristoff (NOR/KAT) 29:56.

163. Adrien Petit (FRA/DEN) 29:56.

164. Marcus Burghardt (GER/BOR) 30:43.

165. Davide Cimolai (ITA/FDJ) 31:40.

166. Julien Simon (FRA/COF) 31:53.

167. Nacer Bouhanni (FRA/COF) 31:53.

168. Cyril Lemoine (FRA/COF) 31:53.

169. Christophe Laporte (FRA/COF) 31:57.