Carapaz wins stage as Pogacar's team suffers sickness
Carapaz won the Olympic road race gold medal in 2020, something the mighty Pogacar, right, has not yet achieved
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Ecuador's Richard Carapaz won stage 18 of the Tour de France following a commanding breakaway.
The EF Education-Easypost rider brilliantly accelerated away from his rivals with intuitive and canny riding, finishing 45 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Mauro Schmid of Jayco-Alula and Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike.
Meanwhile, sickness appears to be making its way through overall leader Tadej Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad after key domestique Brandon McNulty abandoned the race mid-stage.
Slovenian Pogacar remains in the yellow jersey by four minutes 32 seconds over Belgium's Remco Evenepeol of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and six minutes 51 seconds over UAE team-mate Isaac del Toro of Mexico.
Thursday's mountainous 185.2km stage from Voiron to Ocieres Merlette marked the first of three gruelling days in the French Alps, and several riders formed a number of breakaways on a hot day on the road.
But Carapaz's combative riding was the best to watch. With his gold chain and giant crucifix swinging from side to side, he danced on the pedals to try to launch himself away from the hard-charging Valentin Paret-Peintre of Soudal Quick Step - who is wearing the King of the Mountains jersey on behalf of KOM leader Pogacar.
When Paret-Peintre avoided helping the pair extend their lead over Jorgenson and Schmid, Carapaz virtually stopped in the steep tarmac, baulking Paret-Peintre, and as the Frenchman then assumed a period of recovery, Carapaz launched again, leaving an exhausted and out-of-rhythm Paret-Peintre broken.
Denmark's Mads Pedersen extended his lead in the green jersey classification to 32 points, but remains vulnerable to Belgium's Jasper Philipsen.
Pogacar, 27, retains the King of the Mountain jersey, but only by a point, as does Del Toro in the white young rider's jersey.
Read more: Why are cycling's anti-doping tests being carried out at night?
- Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, Thousands of fans are lining the roads in the French Alps for the conclusion of the three-week Grand Tour
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A chink in Pogacar's armour before Alpe d'Huez double?
Dominant overall leader Pogacar is in a commanding position in the general classification as the race heads into its conclusion in the Alps.
Pogacar is aiming to become the joint-most successful rider in the Tour's history with five wins, alongside Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
But the loss of American rider McNulty to sickness - after he drifted several minutes behind the peloton early in the stage - follows Britain's Adam Yates falling ill and vomiting after stage 16's time trial.
Yates spent the following stage riding slowly at the very back of the field, and finished almost last, more than 26 minutes down.
On Thursday Yates was again forced to drift back to his team's service car and take on fluids, before eventually finishing nearly half an hour down.
Such is Pogacar's dominance of the sport, losing two domestiques might not seen like such a problem.
But he uses his domestiques early on stages which involve a lot of climbing, and the next two stages which both finish on the iconic ribbon of Tarmac up to the Alpe d'Huez ski resort, promise to be particularly brutal.
Could even Pogacar's phenomenal pace and explosive riding be quelled by having to traverse a total of four uncategorised climbs?
Tour de France stage 18 results
1. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education-Easypost) +4hrs 26mins 21secs
2. Mauro Schmid (Swi/Jayco-Alula) +45secs
3. Matteo Jorgenson (USA/Visma-Lease a Bike) same time
4. Valentin Pert-Peintre (Fra/Soudal-Quick Step) +1min 14secs
5. Tobias Halland Johannessen (Nor/Uno X Mobility) +1min 57secs
6. Raul Garcia Pierna (Spa/Movistar) +2mins 12secs
7. Pablo Castrillo (Spa/Movistar) +4mins 30secs
8. Lenny Martinez (Fra/Bahrain Victorious) +4mins 35secs
9. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) same time
10. Tom Pidcock (GB/Pinarello-Q36.5)
Tour de France general classification after stage 18
1. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 64hrs 35mins 13secs
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel/Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +4mins 32secs
3. Isaac del Toro (Mex/UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +6mins 51secs
4. Paul Seixas (Fra/Decathlon-CMA CGM) +7mins 11secs
5. Juan Ayuso (Spa/Lidl-Trek) +9mins 22secs
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl-Trek) +10mins 14secs
7. Lenny Martinez (Fra/Bahrain-Victorious) +12mins 50secs
8. Tom Pidcock (GB/Pinarello-Q36.5) +12mins 58secs
9. Jordan Jegat (Fra/Total Energies) +14mins 4secs
10. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education-Easypost) +21mins
