ALPE d'HUEZ, France - The French rider Christophe Riblon won the highly anticipated 18th stage of the Tour de France Thursday with a sudden burst of speed on the final miles of Alpe d'Huez.
After falling nearly half a minute behind the American Tejay van Garderen of BMC on their second ascent of the 8.6-mile climb, Riblon, of Ag2r-La Mondiale, accelerated furiously to catch the American rider with about one and a quarter miles to go and finished nearly a minute ahead, as van Garderen faded.
As he crossed the line, cheered wildly by French fans, Riblon beamed broadly and almost in disbelief, throwing up his hands and pumping his fists repeatedly, looking as if he were about to tear up in joy.
With its dual ascents of Alpe d'Huez and a treacherous descent from the Col de Sarenne in between, the stage was expected to feature numerous attacks on the race leader, Christopher Froome of Sky Procycling.
Indeed, Alberto Contador, the ever-aggressive Spanish rider with Saxo-Tinkoff, who is in second place, used the descent to speed away from a group led by Froome and his Sky teammates.
But Froome caught and passed Contador on the flats below. He and his steady teammate Richie Porte were unable, however, to keep pace with Nairo Quintana, a climbing marvel from Colombia on Movistar, who finished the stage more than a minute ahead of the pair.
Regardless, it was a good result for Froome, who extended his lead over Contador to 5 minutes 11 seconds. Quintana moved into third place, edging past Contador's teammate Roman Kreuziger, who fell to fourth.
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