Kasper Asgreen holds on to win Tour de France Stage 18 as Jonas Vingegaard maintains lead

Denmark's Kasper Asgreen outsprinted the chasing peloton to win stage 18 of the Tour de France on Thursday as Jonas Vingegaard maintained his comfortable overall lead.

The sprint teams got their sums wrong on the 185-kilometre stage from Moutiers as a four-strong break held on by just a few metres to take the honours, with the Soudal Quick-Step rider beating Pascal Eenkhoorn and Jonas Abrahamsen to the line.

The day brought no changes at the top of the general classification, in which defending champion Vingegaard took an all-but-unassailable seven-and-a-half minute lead over Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates on Wednesday.

Jasper Philipsen, hoping to add to his four sprint stage wins in this first opportunity for the quick men in more than a week, came home in fourth having failed to make the catch.

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.

Asgreen was part of a four-man breakaway that took shape early in the stage, but they were never allowed to open a gap of more than one minute and a half by Philipsen's Alpecin-Deceuninck team.

As the bunch drew closer, Asgreen's teammates took turns at the front to slow the pace and offer more hope to the breakaway.

In the four-man group, Belgian Victor Campenaerts rode himself into the ground hoping to set up Lotto-Dstny teammate Eenkhoorn for a last-gasp sprint.

Yet Asgreen was stronger, launching his effort some 200 metres from the line to claim his maiden Grand Tour stage win.