Carapaz punches clear of break to win at Orcières-Merlette on Tour de France stage 18

Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) soloed to victory on stage 18 of the Tour de France after attacking with force from the break with 3.3km to go on the final climb to Orcières-Merlette.

The Ecuadorian was part of the day’s early break, and though he was repeatedly pipped to king of the mountains points by Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step), he delivered the day’s most telling acceleration in the finale.

It was Carapaz’s ninth Grand Tour stage win of his career, and he has now won more Grand Tour stages than any other South American rider, surpassing Nairo Quintana and Luis Herrera.

Carapaz hit the final ascent to Orcières-Merlette in a six-strong break with Matteo Jorgenson (Visma), Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Raul García Pierna (Movistar) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step).

Their sizeable lead meant they could afford to be cagy on the lower slopes of the ascent, where Jorgenson made a number of tentative efforts to forge clear that were quickly snuffed out. Carapaz unleashed an attack of some force with a little over 4km to go, but he was followed immediately by Paret Peintre, who had outsprinted him at the top of each of the day’s king of the mountains sprints.

Schmid and Jorgenson bridged back up when Carapaz relented, but the Ecuadorian was simply figuring out how much venom to add to his next acceleration. With 3.3km to go, Carapaz kicked again, and this time nobody could follow.

Jorgenson and Schmid settled into a tempo and gave chase, while Paret-Peintre was now betraying real signs of suffering. His hopes were fading, and so too were France’s chances of landing a stage on this Tour. 

Schmid won the sprint for second place from Jorgenson at 45 seconds, while Paret-Peintre took fourth.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) remains in the yellow jersey after coming home just over four minutes down alongside his GC rivals, but illness in his team meant he was relatively isolated in the finale, where Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe set the tempo.

Ahead of the Alpe d’Huez doubleheader to come, Pogačar remains 4:32 clear of Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull), with Isaac del Toro (UAE) third at 6:51 and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA GCM) fourth at 7:11.

Much of the pre-stage chatter centred on an apparent illness circulating in the UAE Team Emirates-XRG camp, and the high-speed start to proceedings did little to dampen the speculation, with Brandon McNulty among those struggling at the rear of the peloton. The American would spend more than 50km alone ahead of the broom wagon before he abandoned the race.

There was a flurry of attacking on the first ascent, the Côte d’Engins, where Valentina Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) outsprinted Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) to maximum points.

Over the other side, green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) forced a move clear that included Matteo Jorgenson (Visma Lease a Bike), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco AlUla), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) and Nicolas Breuillard (Total Energies).

EF weren’t prepared to give up the ghost just yet, however, with Ben Healy active in creating a sizeable counterattack behind, and the race would splinter still further on the Côte de Monteynard, where Carapaz, Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos), Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Raul García Pierna (Movistar) bridging up to the front a kilometre from the summit.

Paret Peintre again outsprinted Carapaz at the top, where the escapees had a minute on a 28-strong group of chasers and four minutes on the yellow jersey group with 93km to go. That holding pattern remained in place over the category 3 Côte des Terrasses, where Paret Peintre once more had the better of Carapaz.

Pedersen and Vacek had an obvious motivation to keep the break collaborating and rolling through as far as the intermediate sprint at Corps with 56km to go, where the green jersey duly picked up the full quota of points to stretch his lead over Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) to 32.

Shortly afterwards, the front group fragmented once again, with Jorgenson, Paret Peintre, Carapaz, Johannessen, García Pierna and Schmid forging clear, while Pedersen and the rest would drop back to the second group on the road.

That marked the beginning of the stage’s endgame, with the unwieldy chasing group fragmenting and losing momentum, while it was also clear that the peloton would not reel in the leaders ahead of the final climb to Orcières-Merlette. With his UAE team hampered by illness, Pogačar elected for a more conservative approach to the first Alpine stage, and the yellow jersey group was six minutes down ahead of the final ascent.

Jorgenson attempted to press clear of the break on the penultimate climb, the Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes, but Paret Peintre would lead over the top, and the six leaders would still be together when they hit the foot of the 7km haul to Orcières-Merlette.