Astana rider Vincenzo Nibali tightens grip on Tour de France with stage 18 win

09:11, 25 July 2014

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Since his exploits on the cobbled stage to Arenberg 15 days ago, Vincenzo Nibali has increasingly seemed to be involved in his own race at the top of the standings. Here that was literally the case, with the Italian finishing alone for his fourth stage win of the race, confirming what looks set to be an emphatic Tour victory as the rest of the field scrapped for what was left.

The Italian pushed his overall advantage over seven minutes, with Saturday's time trial yet to come. It is hard to put into perspective given cycling's drug-riddled history in recent years, but since the Lance Armstrong Tours no one has managed a winning margin of more than four-and-a-bit minutes. Armstrong broke the seven-minute barrier twice, but is - obviously - no longer in the record books, while Miguel Indurain only topped five minutes in one Tour, the Guardian reports.

Suffice to say that over the course of the last three weeks Nibali has opened a bigger gap than has been usual in recent years, but the biggest single chunk came on the Arenberg stage; in the mountain stages he has never been headed by one of his challengers but he has never opened gaps that are truly jaw-dropping.

Since Luc Leblanc and Indurain put Marco Pantani, Richard Virenque and company to the sword here on the Tour's first visit in 1994, this particular climb has acquired a history of its own, while being tinged with the kind of ambiguities that have peppered the last 20 years of the race's history. Armstrong and Bjarne Riis wrote chapters here which have been extensively rewritten.

Nibali attacked 10km from the top but rode in only 1min 10sec ahead of Thibaut Pinot, who had let the Italian forge ahead for 5km. There was no initial chase, because the Italian's rivals were engaged in their own battles rather than keeping him within reach. To that extent, they are beaten men. The only threat to Nibali's serene progress was a selfie-taker, who put her elbow into him as he sped clear of the main group. He stayed upright but it underlined that this has been a Tour marked by fans with phones oblivious to what is going on behind them.

Details also at

Sport