Tour de France 2018 Stage 18 live stream: Watch online

With only four days left in the 2018 Tour de France, Stage 18 flattens out to give the sprinters another opportunity. Here’s how to catch the stage to Pau.

Only Paris and Bordeaux have served as a Tour de France host city more frequently than Pau, gateway to the Pyrenees. This time, Pau provides the site of the finish line for Stage 18. After several days in the mountains, Stage 18 offers the sprinters a final chance to win a stage before the finale on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

After a couple of days in the mountains, the road from Trie-sur-Baïse tackles a pair of fourth-category climbs over 125 miles of racing. About a quarter of the way through the stage, riders will crest the Côte de Madiran. Though the hill features seven-percent pitches, the summit comes after less than a mile of climbing.

Then, less than 15 miles from the finish in Pau, the peloton will go over the Côte d’Anos. Though longer than the Madiran, the final climb averages less than five percent grade. It won’t be enough to trip up the sprinters and their teams as they prepare for the finale.

Unlike many stages into Pau, the course approaches the city from the north rather than the south. The final three miles of riding are all on a shallow downhill grade. Speeds will be fast, and riders caught behind the first 30 or so riders will be at a heightened risk of crashes.

Peter Sagan, needing only to get to Paris to claim his sixth green jersey in seven years, will be among those in the mix at the finish. With so many sprinters already having abandoned the race, who else might challenge Sagan in Pau on Thursday?

How to watch the stage

Here is how to catch Stage 18 at the Tour de France live on July 26. The action from Trie-sur-Baïse to Pau will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network. Live streaming of the action is available on NBC Sports Gold or FuboTV.

• Date: Thursday, July 26, 2018
• Start time: 7:40 a.m. ET
• Start: Trie-sur-Baïse, France
• Finish: Pau, France
• TV Info: NBC Sports Network
• Live Stream: NBC Sports Gold, Fubo.TV

It will be somewhere in the low-to-mid 80s when the stage starts in Trie-sur-Baïse on Thursday afternoon. The day will be humid, but there will be little chance of rain on the day as the riders skirt past the Pyrenees to the north on the way to Pau. By the time the finish hits in Pau, it will still be around 85 to 90 degrees, perfect conditions to unwind a sprint.

Next: Tour de France 2018 route breakdown and highlights

Peter Sagan already has three stage wins in the 2018 Tour de France, and another could be in the cards. Fernando Gaviria and Dylan Groenewegen are already gone after winning two sprints apiece earlier in the Tour. So too are veteran German sprinters André Greipel and Marcel Kittel.

That leaves Alexander Kristoff and Arnaud Demare as the most likely threats to pass Sagan at the line. Look out as well for Sonny Colbrelli, a less-heralded sprinter who has raced a solid Tour in his second attempt. One of these three could beat Sagan, but the smart money is on the Slovak star to claim a fourth stage win and lock down the green jersey in style.