Tour de France 2018 Stage 19 live stream: Watch online

The last mountain stage of the 2018 Tour de France takes the peloton over six categorized climbs in 125 miles of racing. Here is how to catch Stage 19 live.

Heading into the final weekend of the 2018 Tour de France, nothing is completely decided yet. There is still one last major stage to race before the Saturday time trial and the ceremonial Sunday ride to the Champs-Élysées. A day after the sprinters got an opportunity to contest one more finish before Paris, the mountain goats of the peloton get a last chance to assert themselves on Friday.

Cyclists in contention for yellow jersey will be hungry to make their mark on the Stage 19 ride between Lourdes and Laruns. So too will those riders battling for the polka dots of the King of the Mountains. With six categorized climbs to conquer, there could be several races within the race depending on how things split up on the legendary Pyrenean passes.

This course follows many of the same twists and turns that the Tour de France featured more than a century ago. Included in the profile of Stage 19 are the famous climbs of the Col d’Aspin, Col du Tourmalet, and the Col d’Aubisque. These three climbs made their inaugural appearances in Stage 10 of the 1910 Tour, and they will be climbed in the same order once again.

But the Tour organizers have spliced in three additional climbs among these three legends. The six-pack of mountains on the course make this truly the queen stage of the 2018 edition.

How to watch the stage

Here is how to catch Stage 19 at the Tour de France live on July 27. The action from Lourdes to Laruns will be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network. Live streaming of the action is available on NBC Sports Gold or FuboTV.

• Date: Friday, July 27, 2018
• Start time: 5:50 a.m. ET
• Start: Lourdes, France
• Finish: Laruns, France
• TV Info: NBC Sports Network
• Live Stream: NBC Sports Gold, Fubo.TV

Julian Alaphilippe has built an insurmountable lead in the mountains classification. Bedecked in the polka dots of the King of the Mountains, Alaphilippe has a 67-point lead on defending champion Warren Barguil. Stage 19 offers a maximum of 57 mountain points if a rider manages to be the first to summit every climb on the course.

So, unable to be overtaken in mountain points and more than an hour behind yellow jersey Geraint Thomas in the general classification, Alaphilippe and the other uphill specialists like Barguil and Rafal Majka could battle it out on the final climbing stage.

We could also see the yellow jersey contenders take their last punches at Thomas before Saturday’s time trial. Tom Dumoulin won’t want to expend too much energy, given that the UCI world time-trial champion will be looking to dominate Stage 20. But given the length of the time trial this year, Dumoulin might need to make up time on Friday to have a chance on Saturday.

Nairo Quintana, winner of Stage 17 into Saint-Lary-Soulan, will also fancy his chances to challenge Team Sky’s hegemony at the Tour de France. With Alejandro Valverde and Mikel Landa on his side, Quintana can challenge Thomas, Chris Froome, and the rest of the Sky climbing crew.

Whatever path Stage 19 ultimately takes, though, the winner will be the cyclist that best manages the descent of the Aubisque into Laruns. We could see a few crashes that cull the peloton further prior to the final weekend.