That’s it from me, but Jeremy Whittle’s stage report will be up later and very worth reading after that day. Back with you tomorrow for… more Alpe d’Huez.

To recap, Pogacar was 3mins 26secs behind the breakaway when they started the climb with 13.8km to go. The man is a motor.

In all that, Carapaz’s third-place finish means he takes the lead in the polkadot jersey standings.

For all the talk about UAE struggling, Pogacar has made a mockery of that. Seixas congratulates the winner: “You’re insane,” says the Frenchman. He’s not wrong.

Martinez comes in second and Carapaz, who rode with such heart, finishes third.

750m to go And that’s it, the elastic has been broken, Pogacar just upped the tempo and that was enough.

1km to go This is exhilarating viewing. Carapaz and Martinez are still with Pogacar.

1.7km to go Pogacar has caught Carapaz and now attacks, but it doesn’t stick.

1.9km to go Isaac del Toro has attacked and put some distance himself between Seixas. That could be the white jersey settled.

2km to go Carapaz is still out ahead and fighting. He can’t hold this, surely?

2.6km to go TNT say Pogacar is close to Pantani’s record for the Alpe d’Huez.

3km to go Carapaz grits his teeth and attacks again. Pogacar goes past Kuss and now Martinez.

3.7km to go Incredible from Pogacar, but it’s almost expected at this point.

4.2km to go Having caught back up, Kuss accelerates. You feel if he had been allowed to dictate this climb that these three might have had a better chance of winning, instead they are being hunted. Pogacar can’t see them but he is only 20 seconds behind.

5.2km to go The crowds are getting very tight around the leaders but they seem disorganised and not working together. Again Carapaz goes, Martinez is with him and Kuss is just behind. All the while Pogacar is making ground, 50 seconds the gap now.

6.8km to go Why is Carapaz still attacking? He can clearly burn away Kuss and Martinez if needs to but this is working into Pogacar’s hands. Pogacar is now just 70 seconds behind.

7.5km to go Pogacar is picking off the riders who were in the break. He’s eating up this mountain. Can someone do a live check on Pogacar’s time so far, is he on pace for the record?

8km to go The games being played up front have allowed Pogacar to bring the gap down to 1min 50secs.

8.8km to go Carapaz has darted away but taken Martinez with him. They managed to distance Kuss but the dispute over who would lead allows the Visma man to tempo his way back on.

9.2km to go Pogacar has left Yates and the gap is now coming down quickly, it’s now 2mins 20secs.

9.5km to go Carapaz wants the others to do some work and swings all the way to do side of the road to make Kuss come through.

10.5km to go Carapaz knows the danger behind and is pushing on. Kuss looks good alongside him. Pogacar is just 2mins 35secs behind the leaders now. It’s like being chased by the Terminator.

11km to go Kuss responds to news of Pogacar over the radio and attacks. Carapaz is with him. Pogacar now has Yates for company to do some turns.

11.8km to go Pogacar attacks and that’s it. He’s gone, no one can live with him.

12km to go Pidcock has lost contact with the GC riders and Ayuso is also struggling. The top ten will get a shake up today, especially with Martinez up the road.

12.5km to go The GC riders are on the climb but up ahead Arensman is attacking and taken Martinez, Carapaz and Kuss with him.

13km to go Someone put a rocket in Netcompany Ineos after yesterday’s disaster, the have two men in the final 11 on the climb, Tobias Foss and Thymen Arensmen. Armirail has knocked it off, some shift from him fir Visma.

13.8km to go We’re on to the climb with a horrible 9% gradient and we’ve already lost a couple of riders out the back.

15km to go Armirail is on the front of the break trying to give his Visma Lease-a-Bike teammate Sepp Kuss a platform to attack Alpe d’Huez. Pedersen has been doing likewise on the front of the peloton for Ayuso and Skjelmose.

18km to go It’s the easy bit now for the riders as they head downhill but very shortly the suffering starts.

25km to go The yellow jersey group is still 3mins 45secs off the break. That’s not insurmountable for Pogacar, but up ahead are some fine climbers. This should be fascinating, strap in this could go in any direction.

29.5km to go The breakaway is down to 15 riders, among them is Richard Carapaz, Lenny Martinez, Sepp Kuss and Quinn Simmons. Serial espcapist Tobias Johannessen is also in there.

30km to go A couple of you have emailed in about Pogacar’s shorts. Without being crass, certain kinds of stains show in yellow shorts, which is something you might have to think about if you have a dicky tummy.

32km to go After mopping up the intermediate sprint Pedersen is done for the day. He’s falling back, as is Adam Yates. Is he going to be used as a bridge for Pogacar perhaps or is this just as much as he can give after couple of days struggling with illness?

33km to go The lead group is starting to whittle away. Paret-Peintre is one of those who has dropped off, we’re down to 30 riders at the front.

37km to go We go straight from the intermediate sprint on to the penultimate climb. Col d’Ornon is a category two lump in the road, 5.4km uphill at an average of 6.4%.

39km to go The intermediate sprint is coming up and Lidl-Trek are lining to ensure Mads Pedersen gets his 25 points.

I’ve had an email from my colleague Luke McLaughlin that is making me very jealous: “I Just rode up the Col du Glandon, came back to try and access the race route from Allemond, but they’ve recently closed the road. Heading back to hotel (well, one-star ski chalet) now to dump bike, then going to try and get a cable car from Oz station to the top instead to watch the finish. I think I recognised the bit where Warren Barguil nearly hit some cows during a rapid descent about 10 years ago!”

And here I am sat on the sofa. Chapeau, Luke.

50km to go I think we’re seeing the impact of a reduced UAE Team Emirates XRG here. Pogacar’s teammates have been riding hard on the front of the peloton but up ahead are a lot of mini-team groups who are motivated to pull away.

57km to go The gap keeps growing, perhaps they heard the TNT team. The lead group has more than four minutes now.

65km to go Have the peloton stepped off a little here? The gap is growing to the lead group. It’s now 3mins 45secs.

75km to go Marco Haller (Tudor) narrowly avoids a nasty looking crash into a large concrete bollard. He still got tangled up in the safety padding as he went down, having clipped the wheel in front.

80km to go Adam Blythe on TNT reckons the break needs a five-minute lead to prevent Pogacar from powering off to take the stage. UAE Team Emirates XRG are working away on the front of the peloton and the gap is not being allowed much beyond 3min 20secs.

90km to go The riders are on the long descent down Col du Noyer, the large lead group have a lead of 3min 30secs. The next stop is the intermediate sprint, which comes at 38.6km to go. Mads Pedersen is in lead group and should add to his lead in the green jersey standings there.

102km to go Paret-Peintre attacks in search of the mountains points and Carapaz goes with him. The polkadot jersey has gone early here, some 200m to go.

105km to go The road is very narrow on the climb, barely more than a car’s width, and the riders are snaked back in a line with the mountains in the backdrop. Gorgeous.

106km to go The breakaway is getting a bit more rope now. The lead is up over two minutes, it can’t stay this big for too long, can it? I’m sure some will drop back but at some point we’ll see attacks off the front too.

109km to go The lead group has just hit the official start of the category one Col du Noyer. This one is 7.2km at an average of 8.5%. The peloton is only letting the break have a 1min 30secs lead at the moment, with Red Bull Bora-Hangrohe and UAE Team Emirates XRG controlling the front.

114km to go Adam Yates is clearly feeling better, he’s in the big lead group. They’re currently 1min 10secs ahead of the main bunch.

119km to go Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), who is currently seventh in the GC standings, has snuck into the big lead group ahead of the peloton. Lidl-Trek have the two riders ahead of the Frenchman in the top ten, will they work to bring thing back?

124km to go A very large group has moved clear of the peloton, there are 42 riders in there but none of the main GC contenders.

125km to go The peloton is already being watered down as the sprinters drop off the back. The four-man break has been neutralised.

126km to go Sean Quinn, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Derek Gee (Lidl-Trek) and Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) have attacked. They haven’t pulled away by much, mind.

127km to go No rest for the wicked, we’re straight on to the category Col Bayard, a 4.8km drag at 7.2%.

The peloton is on the move, next stop kilometre zero.

Pogacar is in black shorts, repeat black shorts.

We’re a couple of minutes away from the rollout in Gap.

There are no reports that Pogacar is feeling any ill-effects today but it remains to be seen how fit the rest of his UAE Team Emirates XRG are. This could be mind games, but Paul Seixas turned up for the stage presentation in a medical mask. Luke Rowe, Decathlon’s sporting director, has just poppped up on TNT predicting an explosive start to the stage, it seems the peloton smells blood.

Tour de France worries emerge for Pogacar after illness sweeps through team

Richard Carapaz won stage 18 of the Tour de France after a breakaway group of six riders duelled their way to the winter sports station at Orcières-Merlette, but uncertainty surrounds the health of race leader Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates XRG, which has been swept by a virus since Monday’s rest day.

After Adam Yates’s stage-long calvary on the road to Voiron, Pogacar’s team was further weakened by the abandonment of his American colleague, Brandon McNulty, who quit the Tour with 21km of Thursday’s stage remaining.

Two more of Pogacar’s teammates, Tim Wellens and Florian Vermeersch, also appeared to struggle at times during the stage, which included five categorised climbs, including the final seven-kilometre ascent to the finish.

Speaking at the stage start in Voiron, Wellens suggested other riders within the team were unwell and revealed that he had a sore throat. Seen through the lens of Friday and Saturday’s mountain-top finishes on Alpe d’Huez, Pogacar, despite his 4m 32s lead over second-placed Remco Evenepoel, has reason to be worried.

“I’m sad that Brandon could not finish. We will see in the next two days but Adam is getting better, and tomorrow, we will go with the flow,” Pogacar said. “I think we can manage. It’s the third week, all the teams are suffering. There are bodies everywhere on a stage like today. We will keep fighting and I believe we can do it.”

Read Jeremy Whittle’s full report from stage 18:

Here’s the official visualisation of what the riders are taking on today: