Tadej Pogacar took stage victory in yellow for a second day running at the Tour de France to underline his dominance in this year's race, with Dan Martin finishing in fifth place on a punishing day in the saddle.
Stage 18 to Luz Ardiden, the final mountain stage of the Tour, again ended with Pogacar winning from Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz, the same as stage 17, in a replication of their overall positions in the race.
Irish cyclist Dan Martin will be pleased with his efforts, finishing 24 seconds behind Pogacar to move up 11 places in the general classification to 39th.
The Isreal Start-up Nation rider is 02h 04' 33'' down on the yellow jersey.
With an advantage of five minutes and 45 seconds from Vingegaard and only one flat stage and a time trial to negotiate before Paris, Pogacar - still only 22 - looks all-but certain to defend his overall title.
Pogacar's win also moves him to the top of the king of the mountains classification, putting him in line to arrive into Paris as the owner of three of the four race jerseys - yellow, the polka dots, and the best young rider's white - for a second year in a row.
The Ineos Grenadiers had tried to use the final climb to set up Carapaz for an attack, with the team that dominated the Tour for so much of the last decade yet to get a victory in this year's race.
But it was Pogacar who made the first significant move with a little over three kilometres to go, and it was Pogacar again who exploded forward inside the last kilometre after an attack from Enric Mas came to nothing.
"It's unbelievable," Pogacar said. "After yesterday, I felt really good and I'm really happy with the win. It's crazy.
"There's still three days to go so you never know but it looks good.
"It was super hard. Already on the Tourmalet the pace was such that you just sit in the wheel and forget about everything and then on the last climb that was the maximum.
"Why should I be worried? For the time trial? We will see. It is a discipline where I always want to do my best. Sometimes you can have a really bad day in the time trial but it will be a new experience for me and I can't wait.
"You can lose six minutes in a time trial, it's happened before, but I'm pretty confident."
