Kasper Asgreen snatches Tour de France stage 18 from break as Vingegaard retains lead

Asgreen the 2021 Tour of Flanders winner, perfectly timed his final effort with the peloton breathing down the neck of the four breakaway riders. He outsprinted Pascal Eenkhorn (26) and Jonas Abrahamsen (27) to the win just seconds ahead of a rampaging peloton having been in the day's break all stage.

Shortly after Asgreen crossed the line, Belgian Jasper Philipsen (25) won the bunch sprint, having just been denied a fifth victory in this year's Tour.

Asgreen was part of a four-man breakaway that took shape early in the stage, but they were never allowed to open a gap of more than one minute and a half by Philipsen's Alpecin-Deceuninck team.

As the bunch drew closer, Asgreen's teammates took turns at the front to slow the pace and offer more hope to the breakaway.

In the four-man group, Belgian Victor Campenaerts (31) rode himself into the ground hoping to set up Lotto-Dstny team mate Eenkhoorn for a last-gasp sprint.

Yet Asgreen was stronger, launching his effort some 200 metres from the line to claim his maiden grand tour stage win.

"Obviously the situation was not ideal. I would have liked to go with more riders but it's the last week of the Tour," said Asgreen.

"It's not the first time that a small group manages to beat the sprinters' team. I believed in my chances."

Overall, Vingegaard still leads Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (24) by seven minutes and 35 seconds with Briton Adam Yates (30) in third place, 10:45 off the pace.