VALLOIRE • Nairo Quintana claimed an emphatic win in the 18th stage of the Tour de France, a 208km mountain trek from Embrun, as fellow Colombian Egan Bernal emerged as the strongest of the top contenders yesterday.

Two-time Tour runner-up Quintana prevailed from the day's breakaway thanks to an impressive attack in the ascent to the Col du Galibier in the first of three consecutive mountain stages in the Alps that will decide the winner of this year's race.

Frenchman Romain Bardet was second 1min 35sec behind the 29-year-old Quintana (5hr 34min 15sec), who got his third career Tour stage win but is already out of contention.

France's Julian Alaphilippe hung on over one category 1 climb and two "hors categorie" ones, the toughest of all, before catching up with his general classification rivals on the final descent to retain the overall leader's yellow jersey.

But Bernal moved up to second place as he gained 32 seconds after also attacking about 2km from the top of the Col, the final of the three challenging climbs.

Defending champion Geraint Thomas, third overall, later jumped away from the favourites group, only to be reined in by Frenchman Thibaut Pinot as Alaphilippe cracked in the final part of the climb.

There are now just two more alpine stages for Alaphilippe to negotiate to become the first home winner of the Tour since Bernard Hinault in 1985.

But Thomas is not giving up hope that either he or Team Ineos teammate Bernal can close the gap on the Frenchman.

Speaking to ITV4, he said: "We wanted a hard pace and unfortunately we ran out of guys.

"The call was made for Egan to go and that kicked it off. I couldn't do much then other than follow. I had a little dig just to see if anything was going to happen and the guys followed me over the top.

"It was a good day for Egan gaining some time.

"There are two big days now. We knew it would be hard to drop Julian Alaphilippe today, but there are two more big days to come."

Separately, Ineos' Luke Rowe and Tony Martin of Jumbo-Visma have failed in appeals to be reinstated to the Tour, the governing cycling body UCI confirmed ahead of yesterday's stage.

The pair were involved in an altercation during Wednesday's 17th stage and were disqualified by race judges. Martin appeared to shoulder barge Rowe, who responded by putting his hand on the German's neck.

"I am very sorry, it was a stupid move," Martin told broadcaster ZDF yesterday in Embrun. "To throw out two riders because of that is very harsh."

The four-time time trial world champion Martin and Rowe apologised together in a video on Wednesday and asked for a second chance, which was rejected.

Their absence is likely to be felt by their teams before Sunday's Champs-Elysee finale.

Team Ineos manager Dave Brailsford said: "It's nothing more than you see most days of the race. It's a pretty harsh decision."

DPA, REUTERS, THE GUARDIAN