Carapaz earns first Tour win on stage 17

Richard Carapaz completed the set of victories in cycling’s Grand Tours by winning stage 17 of the Tour de France.

Carapaz had won stages at the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, as well as Olympic road race gold, but earned his first Tour de France stage triumph with a superb solo victory in the Alps.

The Education-EasyPost rider also becomes the first man from Ecuador to win a stage at the Tour.

Behind Carapaz, who beat Britain’s Simon Yates into second, Tadej Pogacar was 27th, but increased his general classification lead over Jonas Vingegaard by two seconds – it now stands at three minutes and 11 seconds.

The Slovenian, seeking a third overall victory in the race, made a surprise attack late on only to be caught by last year’s winner Vingegaard, but beat his rival in a sprint for the line to increase his general classification lead slightly.

Remco Evenepoel, third overall, finished the stage in 26th, 10 seconds ahead of Pogacar and 12 clear of Vingegaard.

It means that in the general classification standings, Evenepoel now trails Vingegaard by just under two minutes.

Although Evenepoel earned the biggest advantage on time among the leading contenders, the stage only strengthened Pogacar’s position as favourite for the race.

When he kicked on the penultimate climb, he built a lead of at least 10 seconds over Vingegaard before the Dane was dragged back in touch with the help of a team-mate.

A hectic stage was lead by a four-rider breakaway until the final stages when first Yates attacked from a chasing large group as the race returned to the mountains.

He moved into the lead on Col du Noyer but Carapaz came through, pushed on beyond him and pulled clear on the descent to win by 37 seconds.

Carapaz became the first Ecuadorian to wear the yellow jersey after moving into the overall lead on stage three but subsequently faded from contention for the overall race.

Still his first Tour stage victory takes his tally of Grand Tour wins to seven, after three each in the Giro and Vuelta.

Eritrea’s Biniam Girmay recovered from his crash on Tuesday to finish within the peloton as he chases a historic green jersey win.

Girmay, who became the first black African to win a Tour stage earlier in the race, beat Jasper Philipsen in an intermediate sprint to increase his lead in the points classification by a point.

Thursday’s 18th stage follows another hilly route before two days in the mountains, which will effectively decide the race.