Stage 18, the Tour's last mountain day, was supposed to be brutal, dragout GC brawl. And though the profile was punishing, the lasting image was one of friendship, as Ineos teammates Michal Kwiatkowski and Richard Carapaz rode over the finish line with their arms around each other's shoulders, Kwiatkowski the winner by the technicality of getting his wheel over the line first.

Kwiatkowski, riding his seventh Tour, finally won his first stage after years of dedicated service to team leaders. Of all the Tour's twists, I never would have predicted "Ineos does something legitimately heartwarming."

Of course, Ineos' gain was someone else's loss.

The day started with a 32-rider break, which decreased to 28 riders after the sprinters fell back from the intermediate sprint point (Sam Bennett won and survived the time cut ... he'll win the green jersey barring catastrophe). The group was made up of some of the best, most swashbuckling riders from the last three weeks, including Carapaz, Simon Geshcke, Jesus Herrada, Nans Peters, Michael Gogl, Thomas de Gendt and (of course) a bushel of Sunweb riders -- Nicolas Roche, Soren Kragh Andersen and Marc Hirschi.

The high-octane composition of the group was unsurprising, with a maximum of 47 King of the Mountains points available across five categorized climbs. Hirschi, who started the day 35 points out of the polka dot jersey, stated his intentions early by attacking from the group and taking the summit of the Category 1 Cormet de Roselend ahead of Carapaz.

Hirschi earned 10 points while Carapaz took 8. On the descent, the breakaway thinned out behind them, and at the base of the Category 2 Col de Saisies just five riders remained at the head of the course: Hirschi, Carapaz, Kwiatkowski, Nicolas Edet and Pello Bilbao.

The climb set the stage for what could have been a heart-stopping battle for the Tour's King of the Mountains: Hirschi vs. Ineos; the Tour's young stage-hunting hero against the peloton's inevitable force.

A rejuvenated Carapaz was also in punching distance of the polka dot jersey, and tried to catch Hirschi off guard by attacking around the opposite side of a roundabout with 1k to the summit, hoping the 22-year-old Swiss rider wouldn't see him. Hirschi was alert, however, and caught Carapaz's wheel before deploying his superior kick to take his third summit of the day. He had sucked up the maximum KoM points available.

Then disaster: Hirschi's mad descending has produced some of the Tour's most thrilling moments, but his confidence finally got the better of him on the descent from the Col des Saisies. With about 80 kilometers to go, he overcooked a left hand bend and just broke friction's grip on his front tire, falling hard on his left side. Hirschi got up quickly and seemed to be OK, but Carapaz, Kwiatkowski and Bilbao quickly gained a 40-second gap that would only grow the rest of the way. Hirschi never gave up racing the stage, only getting caught by the yellow jersey group with 10 kilometers to go, but catching up to the pair of Ineos riders would have been a monumental accomplishment by his lonesome.

The head of the stage maintained a healthy lead over the peloton the rest of the day. Carapaz took 10 KoM points on the Category 1 Col des Aravis, then 20 on the Hors Categorie Montée du Plateau des Glières after dropping Bilbao to become the virtual King of the Mountains.

That designation is well-earned; Carapaz has had a brilliant journey through the Alps, attacking relentlessly for three near-stage wins. But ugh, what a day Thursday could have been if Hirschi had only stayed upright. We could have had two of the most breathtaking solo artists at this year's Tour duking it out on the killer gradients of Glières.

Instead we got friendship. Gross.

A lot and nothing happened on the GC

As Carapaz and Kwiatkowski went on a joyride, the riders at the top of the general classification lobbed bombs at one another.

For a second straight day, Bahrain-McLaren tried to create chaos. With Bilbao and Damiano Caruso farther up the road in breakaway groups, Mikel Landa attacked with 3.7 kilometers until the summit of the Montée du Plateau des Glières, with Wout Poels giving him a wheel. With 3.3k to go, he was by himself and pushing his way up to a 15-second lead over Roglic and company.

Riders cracked as the pace went up in the yellow jersey group, first Rigoberto Uran, then Alejandro Valverde and David de la Cruz. After sitting on the front, Jumbo-Visma's George Bennett fell back, too.

Wout van Aert took over pace-setting with a kilometer to go until the HC summit, and dropped Adam Yates as well, leaving just eight riders: Van Aert, Roglic, Tom Dumoulin and Sepp Kuss among the Jumbos; Enric Mas, Richie Porte, Tadej Pogacar and Miguel Angel Lopez among the rest.

With 1k left before the summit, Landa linked up with Caruso with about 20 seconds on his rivals, threatening to make his move stick. He entered the day seventh on the GC, just 22 seconds away from Richie Porte in fourth.

Approaching the summit, Mas attacked from the yellow jersey group, prompting Pogacar to go to the front. Kuss surged ahead to quell the unrest, remembering this time not to leave Roglic too far behind.

But although the skirmish didn't shake anyone lose, it did up the pace, and just before the summit, Landa and Caruso came into view and were caught. Pogacar accelerated to take the summit and six more King of the Mountains points, keeping him in a comfortable second place on the classification should Carapaz falter.

So Bahrain-McLaren couldn't explode the favorites. Would an 1,800-meter gravel section have better luck? Almost immediately after the climb ended, the terrain changed and Porte punctured a tire. While he rode on his rim, waiting for a mechanic to come help, he watched his GC standing slip away.

Then the yellow jersey asserted himself. With 25.5 kilometers left to race, Roglic started riding away, briefly putting Pogacar in trouble. Whether because he was in pain or struggling with his gear, Pogacar started to fall back while looking down at his wheel. The move wasn't fatal, however. As they came off the gravel, Roglic, Pogacar, Lopez and Landa were all together again. In the distance, Porte was clawing back with Van Aert, Mas, Caruso and Dumoulin on his wheel.

With 10k to go, and with no help from anyone else, Porte bridged. Then Bahrain-McLaren seemed to be conspiring again, three-strong at the front with Landa, Bilbao and Caruso. Sadly, they ran out of the road, and cruised to the line happy to have moved Landa up to fifth on the GC, ahead of Yates and Uran.

Van Aert sprinted for the line and took third on the stage, and Roglic and Pogacar accelerated to add a second each to their leads over the hoi polloi.

A couple minutes earlier, Carapaz and Kwiatkowski finished the stage in smiles. As they made their final descents, they rode shoulder to shoulder and appeared to have a jolly conversation. They officially began celebrating with 1k to go.

Thursday didn't live up to the hype as a day of racing, but as Ineos showed us, maybe the point of cycling is the friends we make along the way.*

*this is lie

Stop having fun

Riders protested the Tour of Luxembourg because of unsafe conditions, which included oncoming traffic. This thread by Groupama-FDJ's Jacopo Guarnieri is eye-popping. Professional cyclists shouldn't have to race through traffic, imo.

Here's Peter Sagan giving Nairo Quintana a nice shove.

The broadcast's opening helicopter shots of Mont Blanc were stupidly stunning.

We finally got to see the Cormet de Roselend after last year's snowstorm ruined its appearance. It's not bad.

This whole stage was maybe the most stunning of the Tour so far, and I encourage you to find a replay. In the meantime, here are some crazy hairpins.

Jumbo-Visma's sports director has been booted from the Tour for reportedly berating a UCI official during a bike check Wednesday. There uh, will probably be more details about that soon.

READER QUESTION: The Tour de France's scoring system is nonsense

Send me your questions! You can email me at idreaminpolkadot@gmail.com or shout at me on Twitter. I'll do my damndest to answer you in this here newsletter.

Today we hear from Ian: Thanks for the great coverage of the TdF! I'm a first-time follower and since I'm an American I have to know all the rules when I'm watching sports.

One thing that's been confusing me is figuring out how many KOM/sprint points and bonus seconds are on offer for the sprint gates, the KOM gates, and the finishes (which seem to offer bonus seconds, sprint points, and KOM points?).

The Tour broadcast does a poor job of explaining the various points and seconds on offer at the sprints, summits and finish lines (and admittedly, there's a lot to cover). It doesn't help that the scoring systems change almost annually. Let's go jersey by jersey.

Green Jersey -- a.k.a., the points classification

Often misleadingly called the "sprinters'" jersey, the points classification rewards the riders who cross predetermined intermediate sprint points or finish lines ahead of everyone else.

Those green gates you see every once in a while? Every one is worth 20 points to the winner, and award points for the next 14 places (17 for second, 15 for third, 13 for fourth, 11 for fifth ... 1 for 15th). The points available at the finish line depends on how the Tour categorizes the stage.

• "Flat" stages - The winner receives 50 (!) points, and the next 14 riders are awarded (30 for second, 20 for third, 18 for fourth ... 8 for ninth, 7 for 10th ... 2 for 15th).

• "Hilly" stages - The winner receives 30 points, and once again points are given out to 15 places (25 for second, 22 for third, 19 for fourth, 17 for fifth ... 7 for 10th, 6 for 11th ... 2 for 15th).

• "Mountain" stages - Scored exactly like the intermediate sprints.

The system favors the better sprinters, but versatility helps a lot. Peter Sagan has dominated the green jersey competition for nearly a decade because he can climb well enough to horde points on Hilly and Mountain stages that his rivals can't compete on.

Polka dot jersey -- a.k.a., the King of the Mountains

Riders earn more points for harder climbs. Tour organizers assign the value of each climb with a categorization system.

• Category 4 - 1 point to the winner, no one else scores.

• Category 3 - 2 points to the winner, 1 point for second.

• Category 2 - 5 points to the winner, 3 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth.

• Category 1 - 10 points to the winner, 8 for second, 6 for third, 4 for fourth, 2 for fifth, 1 for sixth.

• Hors Categorie - 20 points to the winner, 15 for second, 12 for third, 10 for fourth, 8 for fifth, 6 for sixth, 4 for seventh, 2 for eighth.

For Wednesday's stage finish on the HC Col de la Loze, the Tour doubled the points on offer, giving 40 to stage winner Miguel Angel Lopez. Tour organizers love to mess with the rules for the KoM competition, so don't even try to compare point totals across the years.

Bonus seconds

The first part's easy. On every stage, the winner is given a 10-second time bonus, second place is given a 6-second bonus and third place is given a 4-second bonus. If four riders finish in a bunch at the line, they'll be given the same time for the stage, but the rider who edged his wheel over the line first will have taken four seconds on second place on the general classification, and 10 seconds on fourth place.

To make a simple concept harder, the Tour also has also deemed eight summits as "Bonus Points" this year. They tend to be hard climbs late in stages (the HC Montée du plateau des Glières today was one). Riders who win these summits are given a bonus 8 seconds on the GC. Second place takes 5 seconds, and third place takes 2.

The bonus seconds system, in some form, has come and gone throughout the years. No one seems to particularly like it, and it could easily go away again for 2021.

The standings

STAGE 18

1. Michael Kwiatkowski (Ineos) -- 4hr 47min 33sec
2. Richard Carapaz (Ineos) -- "
3. Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) -- +1min 51sec
4. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- +1min 53sec
5. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- "
6. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) -- +1min 54sec
7. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- "
8. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) -- "
9. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-McLaren) -- "
10. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) -- "
11. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) -- "
12. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) -- "

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — 79hr 45min 30sec
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- +57sec
3. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – +1min 27sec
4. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) -- +3min 06sec
5. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +3min 28sec
6. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- +4min 19sec
7. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — +5min 55sec
8. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- +6min 05sec
9. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) -- +7min 24sec
10. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) — +12min 12sec

GREEN JERSEY

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 298 points
2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 246
3. Matteo Trentin (CCC) — 235
4. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 171
5. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) -- 158

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Richard Carapaz (Ineos) --74 points
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- 72
3. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- 67
4. Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) -- 62
5. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) -- 51

Stage 19 preview -- 166.5km from Bourg-en-Bresse to Champagnole

Stage 19 will begin at 1:45 p.m. local, 7:45 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 7:30 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

These are the bittersweet days of the Tour, when the competition is essentially finished, less a few formalities. With a time trial coming up on Stage 20, expect the GC teams to lay down their arms Friday.

Just take a breath ...

... and enjoy the sprint.

Your candidates to win the stage are the usual suspects: Sam Bennett and Caleb Ewan at the forefront; Peter Sagan and Wout van Aert if the somewhat bumpy profile actually takes a toll; Cees Bol if Sunweb has finally worked the kinks out of its leadout.

A galette jurassienne is a simple dessert of butter, milk, flour, sugar, egg and orange blossom. It is lightweight, unassuming and easily attained. Take your Friday like a good galette jurassienne and don't do too much.