Kasper Asgreen of the Soudal-Quick-Step team won stage 18 of the Tour de France on Thursday as a long range escape edged a fast-closing peloton to the line at Bourg-en-Bresse.

As the Tour returned to flat terrain a four man group crossed the line just metres ahead of the elite sprinters, while Jonas Vingegaard retained his 7min 35sec lead atop the overall standings.

Pascal Eenkhoorn of Lotto-Dstny was second and Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X was third, but their escape companion Victor Campenaerts was engulfed by the peloton at the line in an illustration of what a close call it was after a 20km chase flopped badly.

Winner of all four previous sprints on this Tour Belgian Alpecin rider Jasper Philipsen was fourth on the day.

Organisers were keen to offer the sprinters a flat run here after four Alpine tests, even taking a tunnel through a mountain rather than climbing over it.

Philipsen has dominated the bunch sprints on this Tour although two of his four triumphs were garnered with some wobbly manoeuvres that had to be validated by race officials.

AFP