The Point d’Appui came back to Jan Bárta of Bora-Argon 18 on Stage 18 of the 2016 Tour de France. Bárta was in 89th place after Stage 17, one place ahead of the general classification Point d’Appui, and remained in 89th place after Stage 18, but two riders abandoned the race before the start, meaning the fulcrum moved one spot up to Barta.

Bárta held the Point d’Appui after Stage 16, too, and appears to be the odds-on favorite for Paris. We still have two mountainous stages to go, though, so Bárta is not a sure thing yet.

Fabian Cancellara of Trek-Segafredo bailed out of the Tour de France boat to concentrate his training on the upcoming Olympics. Shane Archbold of Bora-Argon 18 did not start after suffering a fractured pelvis during a crash on Stage 17. Somehow he rode home yesterday.

Stage 18 was an individual time trial, only 17 kilometers long, but most of it was a strong mountain climb, so it was not necessarily suited to the usual time trialist.

Nevertheless, Chris Froome of Sky made it look like the usual time trial. He easily edged out Tom Dumoulin of Team Giant, who up to that point looked as though he were the sure winner of the stage, ahead of the next rider by more than 10 seconds.

Froome remains the tour leader, and Sam Bennett, the first rider to attack the Stage 18 course, remains the Lantern Rouge.

Here’s a list of today’s stage finishes for some of the contenders this year and past overall winners, followed by their overall standing:

• 24th – Alexey Lutsenko – 75th
• 26th – Jan Barta – 89th
• 27th – Tony Gallopin – 84th
• 30th – Michael Valgren – 92nd
• 37th – Daryl Impey – 42nd
• 42nd – Emanuel Buchmann – 21st
• 48th – Anthony Delaplace – 93rd
• 49th – Simon Geschke – 73rd
• 53rd – Pierre-Luc Perichon – 106th
• 56th – Wouter Poehls – 33rd
• 70th – Paolo Tiralongo – 68th
• 87th – Arthur Vichot – 80th
• 90th – Peter Sagan – 91st
• 98th – Kristijan Đurasek – 52nd
• 115th – Marcus Burghardt – 98th
• 138th – Cyril Lemoine – 134th
• 143rd – Vasil Kiriyenka – 115th
• 148th – Grégory Rast – 118th
• 151st – Andriy Grivko – 72nd
• 159th – Markel Irizar – 112th
• 176th – Armindo Fonseca – 147th

On the stage, Jan Bakelants of AG2R La Mondiale placed at the fulcrum position.