World News Carapaz rises to the occasion for first Tour stage win Blog

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Richard Carapaz led Simon Yates to victory on the 17th stage of the Tour de France in Superdévoluy, while race leader Tadej Pogacar continued to put the injured Jonas Vingegaard under pressure in the battle for the yellow jersey.

Carapaz overtook Yates on the Col du Noyer, the penultimate climb of the 178km stage from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, and extended his lead to the finish to win by 37 seconds.

He was the first Ecuadorian to win a stage of the Tour and said: “This means everything to me. We have been trying from the beginning. This was our first goal – to win a stage.”

“Today was so difficult, there was one attack after another until finally a large group formed. This will be a day I will remember for the rest of my life.”

While the breakaway celebrated a rare success in this Tour, Pogacar reignited the battle for the overall classification a few minutes later when he attacked near the top of the Noyer.

Vingegaard immediately ran into difficulties, and although he and Remco Evenepoel were able to catch up with Pogacar on the descent, the Dane had no answer to an attack from Evenepoel on the final climb.

Evenepoel was able to reduce Vingegaard’s lead in second place by twelve seconds and lost a further two seconds to Pogacar at the finish line.

The gaps were small, but Pogacar showed his strength again with only four stages left. The Slovenian’s lead over the defending champion is three minutes and eleven seconds, with Evenepoel in third place, 5:9 behind.

Like Carapaz, Pogacar waited for the double-digit gradients near the top of Noyer to launch his attack.

Vingegaard and Evenepoel reacted, but Vingegaard shook his head as gaps opened up at the summit.

When Evenepoel accelerated again on the final climb, the Dane could only chase after him to minimize the damage, so Pogacar stayed on his rear wheel and sped past in the final hundred meters.

This day was planned for a breakaway group, but it was not until the middle of the stage that major breakaway attempts occurred.

Carapaz and Yates prevailed on the early slopes of Noyer, with Carapaz being the one to give chase after Yates broke away.

The Olympic champion then attacked 1.8 km from the top of the climb to secure his first stage win of the Tour, completing his streak in the Grand Tours.

After his fall on Tuesday, Biniam Girmay showed strength and was able to gain a point on Jasper Philipsen in the intermediate sprint, giving him a lead of 33 points in the battle for the green jersey.

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