Tour de France 2018: Thomas intends to stay in yellow after the 16th stage interrupted – live! | sport

157km from the finish: Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic), Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo ) and Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-step Floors) is 26 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey group, but a small group of four other drivers are about to join them. This will make a nice group of eight riders that could become the break of the day.

158km remaining: Tim Declercq shows: The Belgian Quick-Step remains an image of suffering at the back of the pack and struggles badly all day. With the group moving so fast, he hopes the breakaway will soon fly away, so the bunch with which he is desperately trying to keep in touch will eventually slow down a bit.

162km to go: More attacks on the front, with Warren Barguil and Daryl Impey, Julien Bernard and Julian Alaphilippe opening a small gap. Barguil has eye on the polka dot jersey that currently adorns the shoulders of Alaphilippus. There is quality in this dissident group, they can stay away. The gap is 18 seconds right now, but the pack seems reluctant to let them go.

165km from the finish: The rain continues to deteriorate as runners negotiate the apartment on the way to the next climb of the day, the Cat. 4 Côte de Pamiers. There are three more peaks to negotiate after that, but they will not touch the first 62.5 kilometers from the finish.

170km from the finish: The peloton is back after the breakaway at four has not managed to break the elastic band that separated them from the pack. Meanwhile, in the sky, the sky is open and it is raining in the rain. It's just a bit of excitement after everyone else today.

174km from the finish: Our four-man breakaway now has 21 seconds ahead of the pack that beat Chavanel . There will be a lot of disgruntled team managers that they do not have men in this breakaway, which will do well to stay clear. The peloton behind them is very tense.

178km from the finish: Stefan Kung (BMC), Rafal Majka (Bora Hansgrohe), Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain-Merida and Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty Grober Group) opened a 17 second lead over the pack, where Sylvain Chavanel jumped from the front and tries to fill the gap.

At 183km from the finish: The flag goes down again and the races start again. None of the riders seem to show any ill effects from splashing a policeman pepper spray on their face.

This, from the internet: "The pepper spray causes non-lethal inflammation of all the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, mouth and lungs.Takes the closure of the eyes of an intense burn and temporary blindness.The effects will last from 30 minutes to two hours.The antidotes against pepper pepper include milk and dawn. "

At 187km from the finish: The riders start another deployment and will be controlled at a calm pace. for a few more kilometers behind the race director's car. The runners still were not informed on the race radio that they were "attacked" by an overly enthusiastic policeman who did not take into account the breeze – and where he could blow his pepper spray – so he decided to deal with an angry farmer. They will not fail to console themselves for the fact that the gendarme himself also gave himself a good dose of tingling in his face.

At 187km from the finish: The ITV4 commentator team, Ned Boulting and David Millar, revealed that it was indeed a French policeman who had accidentally pulverized several cyclists. the pepper gas trying to restrain a protester who was trying to throw hay bales into the path of the pack. Confusion continues to reign in the pack, however, where runners have no idea what's going on.

At 187km from the finish: The race remains at a standstill and the race radio has not yet explained exactly what is going on. A Dutch television channel that has a motorcycle after the race reports that someone – it seems to have been a policeman – sprayed pepper spray against a protester and managed to hit half the pack while he was there. was here.

187km from the finish line: The race was stopped and now there are stories emerging that some runners may have been attacked with a pepper spray. The peloton is currently stopping behind the race organizers' cars, with some riders continuing to wash their eyes with the contents of their cans, while others return to their team cars. for medical treatment. Those who do not seem affected by what happened are returning to their cars to feed themselves and take comfort breaks at the side of the road.

187km from the finish: Christian Prudhomme neutralizes the race because there is a kind of protest on the side of the road. There are riders on either side of the road who wash their eyes with water after what appears to be hay bales thrown on the road by the farmers. On TV, commentators have suggested that the fertilizer could have been sprayed at the peloton in passing. More news as soon as we have them.

193km to go: The peloton is on the first climb of the day, the Cat 4 Fanjeaux Coast and Fortuneo-Samsic's Warren Barguil is first up above to get the point on offer for the King of the Mountains ranking. Behind him, Tim De Clercq remains in all sorts of trouble as he struggles to stay in touch with the back of the band.

197km remaining: Direct Energie is launching a new attack on the front, just like Katusha-Alpecin, which has only four riders. Nils Politt is their man with the bit between his teeth, but he is quickly rolled up. Katusha rider Marcel Kittel, who left the Tour this year after missing time cut on stage 11 at La Rosiere, was forced to go out and say that he will not leave a team that would be buzzing after only a year. Kittel was the subject of criticism from his new Sports Director, Dimitri Konyshev, who described him as "selfish and" selfish ".

"Just because someone has an opinion about me that I do not like does not mean for me that the world ends," said Kittel in an interview with Sport1.de. "Ok, the way this is communicated is another matter.People may have different opinions, but everything should be done within the team.In the end it's an individual opinion, I not going to stick with the whole team.After, I had good discussions with the other members of the team, it is important to me.I think we've made things right between us. "Time trial specialist Tony Martin would also be unhappy with Team Katusha-Alpecin's life

199km remaining: Let's have a thought for Tim De Clercq, the Quick-Step pilot who is already fighting at the back of the platoon. Whatever it is, it seems like it will definitely be a long day for him.

201km from the finish: The peloton continues to roll with occasional unsuccessful attacks launched on the front. It 's going to be an old day, so if you want to get in touch with their thoughts on the stage today, the Tour in general or whatever you like, do not hesitate to do exactly that. that.

204km Go: The peloton reacts to the attack to three and reverses them.

205km to go: A group of three runners opened a gap of a few seconds on the bunch, from where several other pilots are trying to jump. Thomas de Gendt of Lotto-Soudal, Jerome Cousin of Direct Energie and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck of Wanty Groupe-Gobert are the men of the evening of escape.

211km from the finish: Five kilometers behind them, the runners at the front of the platoon closely monitor each other as the first attacks are launched. Nobody has yet managed a successful breakaway.

Christian Prudhomme waves his flag: The races begin seriously on the 18th stage, with drivers Lotto Soudal, Mitchelton Scott and Direct Energie launching the first attacks. Mitchelton-Scott driver Damien Howson was confirmed as a non-starter today after succumbing to a broken right hand. The field has now fallen to 148 and only six teams have their full complement of eight runners each.

Deployment began: There are six stages left in this year's Tour (well, five plus Sunday procession at Paris) and before receiving the signal of departure, the riders started the procession this morning out of the beautiful fortified city of Carcassonne, which moviegoers may remember as the scenery of the vehicle Kevin Costner of 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. There are 149 runners out of the 176 who started, with seven full teams of eight remaining.

Nico Portal speaks: In an interview on Eurosport, Sky sports director was asked how The absence of Gianni Moscon would affect the team for the rest of the week. "A lot, as we said," he said. "We arrive at the third week of the Tour and many of them run out.We leave this place open every day and the guys will work a little harder to cover his workload."

Team Sky boss David Brailsford was in a typically bubbling and conscious form yesterday, condemning Tour organizers for not do more to protect "It's interesting that we had just done the Tour of Italy and Chris's case was open and the Italians were fantastic, and the Spaniards the same," said Brailsford, apparently unaware of the fact that he was not a fan. abuse aimed at Froome during the Giro. "It seems like it's a French cultural thing."

Brailsford's comments arrived less than 24 hours after one of his team's riders, Gianni Moscon, was ejected for apparently punching a runner from a team. other team. Moscon has already been suspended for assaulting a rider in the squad. Never change, Dave.

Geraint Thomas continues to lead the Tour, while his teammate, defenseman Chris Froome, drags to second place by 1min 39sec. When asked yesterday that he would be willing to sacrifice his ambitions for a record fifth round victory to help Thomas get on the top step of the podium in Paris on Sunday, Froome said " Yes".

Excerpt from William Fotheringham's step-by-step guide: After the second day rest, the last week opens on a long descent to the Pyrenees and three short steep climbs, the last, the Col du Portillon, only 10km from the finish. The winner should come from the early breakaway – a climber such as David Gaudu or Pello Bilbao – while the elite group of global contenders is likely to look and wait with tomorrow at the weekend. ;mind.