In short:- Richard Carapaz solo attack on the mountains earned him victory on stage 17 of the Tour de France. The win is his first on the Tour, and he also became the first rider from Ecuador to claim a stage win in cycling’s most famous race.
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What’s next? Thursday’s stage 18 is a 180km ride from Gap to Barcelonnette.
Tadej Pogacar all but sealed victory at the Tour de France 2024 with a stunning win on a brutally hard stage 19 route through the Alps. Pogacar carefully tracked his nearest rival Jonas Vinegared before launching a devastating attack on the final climb, where he reeled in the leader Matteo Jorgenson and stormed to a famous win in Isola. The Slovenian increased his overall lead to more than five minutes as he took a fourth stage win at this year’s Tour, and he is now on the verge of a historic Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double.
Tour de France Two Best Riders
They are the two best riders in the Tour de France. That has been true for several years and has been clear these last few weeks racing up and down the mountains of France. But it seems like Tadej Pogacar is just better than Jonas Vingegaard this year, and now he is closing in on his third Tour victory. Pogacar held his grip on this year’s Tour on Wednesday by finishing ahead of Vingegaard in another mountain stage. He crossed the finish line two seconds ahead of his rival at the Super Dévoluy ski resort in the Alps and now holds a 3:11 lead overall.
After wrestling with crosswinds early and heat around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the riders approached the steep climbs at the end of the day. Pogacar had a 3:09 lead overall but seemed intent on increasing it. He attacked Vingegard on the biggest climb of the day, the Col du Noyer. Vingegaard chased immediately but could not keep up, though he did catch Pogacar on a brief, fast descent. Richard. Richard Carapaz has climbed his way to history, becoming the first Ecuadorian to win a stage at the Tour de France by taking honours on stage 17.
The rider from EF Education-Easy Post rode to a solo victory on the 178km ride from Saint-Paul-Trois-chateaux to Superdevoluy on Wednesday, local time. Carapaz, who has also won stages on the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana, finished 37 seconds ahead of Jayco Alula’s Simon Yates to claim his maiden win on the Tour.”This means everything to me. We have been trying it since the beginning. This was our first goal — to get a stage win,” Carapaz said.
“Today was so difficult with attack after attack until eventually there was a big group. It’s going to be a day I will remember for my life. “I had to wait for the right moment and made the most of it. We studied the course this morning with our sports director and I knew what I had to do. It’s a great victory. “His attack in the mountains, about 13km from the finish, helped the Olympic champion breeze to victory but there was a battle in the general classification behind him as Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar retained his yellow jersey.
Pogacar attacked towards the end of the stage, forcing rivals Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel to respond. Evenepoel, who is third in the overall standings, attacked on the climb to pull ahead of Pogačar and second-placed Vingegaard to cross the line first among the contenders.
Pogačar waited for the right opportunity and attacked in the final 300 metres to extend his lead over Vingegaard by two more seconds.
“I don’t even know myself why I tried today, but I got two more seconds ahead of Jonas and I’m happy with that,” Pogačar said.
“Remco did a super good attack but we had super teamwork today.”
Earlier, Biniam Girmay came fifth in the intermediate sprint but held on to the green jersey when he beat Belgian Jasper Philipsen to the line, narrowly extending his lead in the standings to 33 points.
Girmay crashed with less than 2km to the finish in Tuesday’s stage 16 which allowed Philipsen to comfortably sprint to victory and close the gap in the race for green.