{"id":628472,"date":"2026-06-09T01:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T01:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628472\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T01:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T01:57:18","slug":"tour-de-france-2026-stage-18-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628472\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France 2026 stage 18 preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stage 18: Voiron – Orci\u00e8res-MerletteDate: July 23, 2026Distance: 185.2kmStart time: 12:35 CETFinish time: 17:25 CET<\/p>\n

Image 1 of 3<\/p>\n

\"Route(Image credit: ASO)\"Route(Image credit: ASO)\"Route(Image credit: ASO)<\/p>\n

The first of the final Alpine trilogy, stage 18 should suit attacking climbers out of contention for the overall classification. The 185.2 km route from Voiron to Orci\u00e8res-Merlette ends on the climb made legendary by Luis Oca\u00f1a’s imposing solo victory over Eddy Merckx in 1971.<\/p>\n

Heading south toward the Grenoble urban area, the first categorised climb, the C\u00f4te d\u2019Engins, arrives at kilometre 36.7, but the road continues to rise gently for another 15 kilometres before dropping into the Grenoble valley. From there, a succession of ascents awaits: the Col du Monteynard, the C\u00f4te des Terrasses and the C\u00f4te de Saint-L\u00e9ger-les-M\u00e9l\u00e8zes, before the final 7km haul to the finish at Orci\u00e8res-Merlette, 1,825 metres above sea level.<\/p>\n

MountainsC\u00f4te d’Engins (cat. 1, 11.4km at 5.4%), km. 36.7C\u00f4te de Monteynard (cat. 2, 9.7km at 5%), km. 92.2C\u00f4te des Terrasses (cat. 3, 3.4km at 6.6%), km. 112.8C\u00f4te de Saint-L\u00e9ger-les-M\u00e9l\u00e8zes (cat. 3, 2.5km at 6.9%), km. 166.2Orci\u00e8res-Merlette (cat. 1, 7.1km at 6.7%), km. 185.2Sprints<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stage 18: Voiron – Orci\u00e8res-MerletteDate: July 23, 2026Distance: 185.2kmStart time: 12:35 CETFinish time: 17:25 CET Image 1 of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-628472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}