Italy's Vincenzo Nibali underlined his superiority at the Tour de France by winning the summit finish at Hautacam to all but wrap up the overall victory.
Nibali is seven minutes, 10 seconds clear of Thibaut Pinot, who finished 70 seconds adrift in second to move up to second in the overall standings.
Rafal Majka was third to ensure he will win the King of the Mountains jersey.
France's Jean-Christophe Peraud came home fourth to move to third overall, leapfrogging Alejandro Valverde.
It was an impressive display by Nibali, who is on the verge of becoming just the sixth man to win all three Grand Tours - the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.
The Astana rider was paced over the first of the day's two big mountain climbs, the Tourmalet, by his team-mates before racing clear 8km from the summit finish at Hautacam.
None of the riders in his leading group where inclined to follow Nibali, knowing that would be unlikely to either catch him or finish sufficiently far enough in front of him to stop him from winning the race.
Pinot, Peraud, Valverde and Romain Bardet were more interested in watching each other in their battle to finish on the podium in Paris on Sunday.
Movistar rider Valverde started the day with a 34-second advantage over Pinot, who is also leading the young rider classification, but the Spaniard cracked on the final ascent, finishing 49 seconds adrift of the Frenchman.
FDJ's Pinot finished five seconds ahead of fellow Frenchman Peraud and leads the AG2R rider by just 13 seconds, with Valverde two seconds further adrift.
There are just three stages remaining in the race. Friday is a relatively flat stage which is likely to finish in a bunch sprint with no overall change in the standings, while Sunday's finale in Paris is likely to offer a similar outcome.
However, Saturday's penultimate stage is a 54km individual time trial that should throw up some time differences.
Stage 18 result
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita/Astana) 4hrs 04mins 17secs
2. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/FDJ.fr) +1min 10secs
3. Rafal Majka (Pol/Tinkoff - Saxo) +1min 12secs
4. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra/AG2R) +1min 15secs
5. Tejay van Garderen (US/BMC Racing) Same time
6. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R) +1min 53secs
7. Bauke Mollema (Ned/Belkin) +1min 57secs
8. Leopold Koenig (Cze/NetApp Endura) Same time
9. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa/Trek) +1min 59secs
10. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) Same time
General classification after stage 18
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita/Astana) 80hrs 45mins 45secs
2. Thibaut Pinot (Fra/FDJ.fr) +7mins 10secs
3. Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra/AG2R) +7mins 23secs
4. Alejandro Valverde (Spa/Movistar) +7mins 25secs
5. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R) +9mins 27secs
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