VIDEO | Jonas Vingegaard ATTACKS Tadej Pogacar with 71 kilometers to go on Tour de France's queen stage

The Tour de France has been a constant string of hard days from start to finish and stage 18 has encapsulated this massive amount of efforts very well. With the massive Col de la Loze still yet to be raced, Jonas Vingegaard and Team Visma | Lease a Bike went all-out on the Col de la Madeleine and the Dane attacked Tadej Pogacar with 71.5 kilometers to go.

Matteo Jorgenson was inserted in the strong breakaway of the day which featured the likes of Primoz Roglic and Felix Gall in there, and the American proved to be a key part of the Dutch team's plan. As soon as the peloton got in the second climb of the day, Wout van Aert hit the front of the peloton.

Slowly it lost riders as Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts and Simon Yates set a strong pace for many kilometers, but when Sepp Kuss hit the front only Vingegaard and Pogacar himself could follow the wheel of the American. It was more than obvious that an attack was coming as the Danish climber has shown ambition and had been vocal that the team had to try from far.

That attack came with 71.5 kilometers to go and it was powerful, but not enough to drop the yellow jersey. The two bridged across to the survivors of the front group, linking up with Matteo Jorgenson who paced the group all the way to the summit. At the top of the climb, with just under 70 kilometers to go, Florian Lipowitz followed 30 seconds behind whilst the next group - that of Oscar Onley - was around 2 minutes behind. The Col de la Loze lies in the distance, and in the 26-kilometer long climb we are certain to have more action as the Dutch team tries to seize the most difficult day of the race.