With four stages left in this year's Tour de France, the riders are expected to go all out in the 18th stage on Thursday - the final mountain stage of Le Tour 2014.

The peloton will face a 144.5-kilometer route from Pau to Hautacam. The first 80 kilometers of the race is relatively easy, but the two categorized climbs are expected to cause splits in the peloton.

The first challenging climb will be at the Col do Tourmalet, where the first rider to climb the 2,115-meter mountain will be awarded the Jacques Goddet Souvenir, followed by a summit finish in Hautacam.

The yellow jersey winner is almost set at this point barring any unfortunate incident as Vincenzo Nibali continues to extend his lead in general classification.

The Astana rider is now five minutes, 26 seconds ahead of Movistar rider Alejandro Valverde and six minutes ahead of FDJ.fr rider Thibaut Pinot.

Nibali admitted that he is already feeling comfortable at this stage of tournament, saying that he has the luxury to pace himself in the final four stages of the race.

"My condition is very good and I'm ready to push right to the end but when I get to the end of a stage I'm not giving everything because I don't have to, and I've also had an eye on the next stage," Nibali said via The Local France.

Below is the general classification, top 10, heading into the 18th stage:

  1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita/Astana) 76hrs 41mins 28secs
  2. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) +5:26
  3. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/FDJ.fr) +6:00
  4. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra/AG2R) +6:08
  5. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R) +7:34
  6. Tejay van Garderen (US/BMC) +10:19
  7. Bauke Mollerma (Ned/Belkin) +11:59
  8. Laurens ten Dam (Ned/Belkin) +12:16
  9. Leopold Konig (Cze/NetApp) +12:40
  10. Pierre Rolland (Fra/Europcar) +13:15

The complete classification is available on the official Tour de France 2014 website through this link, while the full route map for Thursday's race is available here.

Cycling fans can catch the 18th stage of Le Tour 2014 on NBCSN and through online live streaming via NBC Sports Live Extra. Fans in the United Kingdom can watch the race on ITV4 and via ITV Player app.

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