photo credits @ Le Tour
Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) emerged victorious from a chaotic day in the Alps to become the first Ecuadorian rider to win a stage on the Tour de France.
Carapaz got the better of fellow escapee Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) to complete his grand slam of Grand Tour stage wins a fortnight after he became the first Ecuadorian to don the famous yellow jersey.
The current man in yellow, Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) distanced his GC rivals Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) on the penultimate climb of the day with an unexpected attack within the last kilometre of the Col du Noyer.
However, Pogacar was pegged back by his rivals on the descent before Evenepoel zipped clear to take 10 seconds back on the two riders above him on the virtual podium. Another last-ditch attack by Pogacar on the home straight saw the elastic snap for defending champion Vingegaard, who conceded a couple of seconds to the indefatigable race leader.
These skirmishes for seconds played out over eight minutes further down the road from lone leader Carapaz, who made his decisive move after reeling in Britain’s Yates inside the final 15km and then attacking with venom on the steepest part of the penultimate climb.
Carapaz’s victory came after the 2019 Giro d’Italia winner – who had been highly active in breakaways in the second week of the race – missed the initial move when four riders went clear during a fiercely contested opening two hours of the 177.8km stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux.
Race Highlights
There were 148 riders on the start line in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux. Early in the stage that number decreased, following the abandons of Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Team) who were unable to take the pace, as the bunch covered 49 km in the first hour of racing whilst also encountering crosswinds.
A four-man breakaway
The breakaway did not form immediately and the Visma-Lease a Bike riders attempted an attack at km 9. Three UAE riders, Yates, Soler and Sivakov temporarily found themselves in a second group, but the peloton regrouped at km 17. Following this came a rapid succession of attacks and counter-attacks, with Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana) going clear between km 30 and km 36 before they were reeled in. At km 57, it was Magnus Cort (Uno-X) who initiated an attack which saw Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) follow him to form a strong four-man breakaway group. The chase was incessant behind them and caused significant splits and then regroupings in the peloton, with crosswinds also having an obvious impact on the main group.
Cort first at the intermediate sprint
At the intermediate sprint in Veynes, it was Cort who arrived in first position, whilst the peloton were 45” behind the breakaway four, led by the green jersey Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty). Soon after that, at around km 120, a group of 47 riders counter attacked out of the peloton, which gave them the go-ahead. At the foot of Col Bayard, the leading quartet had a 1’45” advantage over their pursuers and 4’50” over the GC group controlled by UAE Team Emirates. By the summit of that climb, which Cort was first to the top of, the leading quartet had a 30” advantage over the chasing pair of Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), who had left the other riders from the large counter-attack group behind. That group trailed the breakaway riders by 1’00” at the top of the Col Bayard, whilst the relaxed peloton in which the GC riders were present was +6’40” off the lead of the race.
Col du Noyer attacks
Martin and Madouas made it to the front at the foot of the Col du Noyer, where the chasing group was 40” from the head of the race. Simon Yates then attacked from that chasing group, the Briton from Jayco-AlUla soon catching and overtaking the leading six. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) was also in hot pursuit and he then caught Yates on the penultimate climb of the stage, the pair briefly ascending together, before Carapaz attacked and went solo 1.8 km from the Col du Noyer summit. The Ecuadorian hero and Olympic champion would not look back from there, relentlessly pedalling to a memorable victory at SuperDevoluy.
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