Steven Kruijswijk and Primoz Roglic will start the final mountain stage in the Tour de France with great confidence. In the eighteenth stage they finished in the belly of the peloton. Nothing changed in the general classification. Primoz Roglic remains fourth, Kruijswijk sixth.

The stage to Pau was marked by the traditional early breakaway that was caught in the final. Team LottoNL-Jumbo protected both Kruijswijk and Roglic well all day.

“The team has worked well for Primoz and me today”, Kruijswijk said. “It was a day where we had to be attentive and race in the front of the peloton all day. The boys did a perfect job. Today was mainly a matter of saving as much energy as possible with an eye on tomorrow.”

Kruijswijk is looking forward to it. “Tomorrow, it’ll be a long and hard day. We have to race smartly instead of racing like it’s all or nothing because from the Tourmalet it’s still a long way to the finish. Or it must be an aggressive, fast race from the beginning. Then it’ll be something else. I expect some attacks on the Aubisque in particular. I feel good, fit and healthy and we’ll go for it tomorrow.”