The Tour heads into the Alps for a ski station summit finish. Tadej Pogaar got beaten the last time the race came here and he remembers it but this should be for the breakaways given the bigger Alpine stages to come.Classique du Dauphin: the Tour de France is many things and among them a game of musical chairs. Come the third week and the music plays louder as riders and teams get desperate for a seat and this is not limited to small teams and unheralded riders. If anything theyre the ones already beaten down and struggling to find an opening. So a humdrum transition stage comes alive with plenty of big names making moves. The top-10 to come was worthy of a classic but the race was even better as everyone had to make their moves from the start and keep going.With the Col des Prs and the Alpine part of the stage done the moves kept going against a backdrop of scenic lakes and mountains on the roads of the ancient Dauphin region.We got an early split in the field with Pogaar, Evenepoel and Seixas in a front group with Del Toro and others on the wrong side but it came to nothing, UAE behind were willing chasers only they did not have to as more waves of riders tried to get clear.With groups of riders spread like confetti over the course a group of five went clear with Jasper Stuyven, Ben Healy, Mads Pedersen, Felix Engelgardt and Edward Planckaert. Pedersen won the intermediate sprint and but with Planckaert playing policeman for Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen, Stuyven attacked with 25km to go and he was looking good for the stage win but behind a larger group swept up the quartet hed distance which in turn was caught by more and so a 50 rider group was bearing down on Stuyven and crucially with several helpers working for their sprinters.The moves kept going, the group was hard to control and the last one saw Josh Tarling try a flyer in the streets of Voiron. He was closed down and we got a sprint with Mathieu van der Poel able to lead-out Jasper Philipsen and he pulled his team mate clear of the rest to leave Philipsen well clear of Mauro Schmid and Olav Kooij.For Adam Yates the stage in the Isre rhymed with misre, thanks to illness. He was dropped and at times seemed to struggle to turn the pedals but made the time cut. The big question is whether he can recover.Someone more happy was Jordan Jegat, 9th in the morning at over 22 minutes with several riders not far behind on time. He infiltrated the breakaway and thanks the time gain of almost nine minutes finished the day still 9th overall but now 14 minutes while other top-10 contenders were behind.The points competition comes alive with Pedersen in green but now only seven points ahead of Jasper Philipsen who narrowed the gap with 50 points for the stage win; Lidl-Trek will be ruing how things turned out as Pedersen at one point looked like he was a contender to win the stage and Philipsen was out of the picture; although he was never distanced and Pedersen was sapped. Theres a contest and Pedersen is forced to go raiding for fear of losing out in Paris where the finish is a 50-pointer and the intermediate sprint on the Champs-Elyses could be crucial too.The Route: 185km and 3,900m of climbing. Theres 20km on the flat until the race first goes up the road up to Lans via Engins, its not the most scenic road into the Vercors and 11.4km at 5.4% sounds gentle for a first category climb, it is especially as its an even climb up, but its a big prize for the mountains competition, a carrot to move early.Once out of the Vercors and past the town of Vif theres barely a flat road as the race heads for the Champsaur area of the Alps and then onto Orcires.The Finish: a ski station summit finish that was long heralded thanks to the Tour stage in 1971 where Luis Ocaa got the better of Eddy Merckx for once, and by eight minutes. However the race came back in 2020 and a headwind saw the lead contenders huddle between the hairpins and it turned out that the history books and magazine articles supplied more thrill than the days sport. Its still a summit finish but a gradual and even one, all on a wide road.The Contenders: Tadej Pogaar (UAE) came here in 2020 and was beaten in the finish by his senior Primo Rogli, something he evoked on TV after Stage 17 so he may wish to correct the record but at the same time in his interview he said the focus is on Alpe dHuez. Still he gets a chainring because if the breakaway cant get clear, then why not gobble up another stage?Otherwise the breakaway has a great chance, the GC contenders and their teams will want to save energy ahead of the two stages to Alpe dHuez. The summit finish means the stage is almost reserved for a climber, or someone capable of a 20 minute effort uphill.Richard Carapaz (EF) will get tipped for the next three stages and even if he wins here hell be a pick again and hes after the mountains competition too. Ditto Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quickstep). Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) and Einer Rubio (Movistar) were on the move in the Vosges and should feature again but dont have the same finishing kick to deliver a win.Two new names for the breakaway are Sep Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-LAB) now they dont have a leader to work for. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos) is better suited to the bigger mountains to come but has been trying already, if he can make the winning move his challenge is find a way to win from it.Finally Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) keeps making the breakaway and if this poses a problem for both the GC contenders and the breakaway hes likely to keep trying.CarapazVP-P, Kuss, Arensman, PidcockPogaar, Jorgenson, THJ, Tejada, Healy, RubioWeather: 27C and sunny. A light 10km/h NW breeze means a tailwind for much of the stage.TV: KM0 is at 12.50 and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST.The post Tour de France Stage 18 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.