Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz won stage 17 of the Tour de France after the remnants of a breakaway finished ahead of the main pretenders in the High Alps on Wednesday.
EF rider Carapaz dropped Simon Yates and soloed the final 10km to win his first-ever Tour de France stage after finishing third overall in 2021.
The former Giro d’Italia champion, who won the Tokyo Olympics road race, also wore the overall leader’s yellow jersey after his efforts in the second stage to Bologna.
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Overall leader Tadej Pogacar, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel kept their powder dry until late in the medium mountain run.
The trio then produced an entertaining scrap with third-placed Evenepoel finishing 12sec ahead of Pogacar, with Vingegaard losing two seconds to the leader.
Pogacar had been the first to try his luck and Vingegaard was unable to follow.
Evenepoel however closed the gap while Denmark’s Vingegaard then caught them both on a daredevil descent.
Belgian Evenepoel then broke again, and finished strongly to consolidate his third place overall.
A group of over 30 riders broke away early on a balmy day in the south as they climbed to the ski resort of Superdevoluy.
Biniam Girmay retained the green jersey for best sprinter with 387 points to Jasper Philipsen’s 354.
Stage 18 on Thursday is billed as one of the prettiest, with lakes and mountains in Haute Provence and an opportunity for the one-day specialists during a 179km ride from Gap to Barcelonnette.
