Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (EF Education) won Wednesday (17.07.2024) the 17th stage of the Tour de France, and gave Ecuador the first victory in the history of the most prestigious stage race in the world.
Carapaz left breakaway teammate Simon Yates behind 13 kilometers from the finish line on the Col de Noyer, the penultimate climb of the day, increasing his lead on the descent and the final climb to the Superdévoluy ski resort.
The 31-year-old, winner of the 2019 Giro d’Italia, completed the treble by recording at least one stage win in Giro, Vuelta a España and Tour de France.
With golden crucifix around his neck, closing on his U.S. team’s pink jersey, Carapaz raised his arms after 177.8 kilometers.
Simon Yates came in 37 seconds behind, with Movistar’s Spaniard Enric Mas 57 seconds behind the day’s winner.
The Olympic champion, who will not be able to defend his title in Paris as he was not selected by Ecuador, puts the icing on the cake of a great Tour de France, as he wore the yellow leader’s jersey for one stage, the only major where he had not yet done so.
We knew with the team that we could try to do it today and we did. For me it was one of the things I wanted to do personally and the team helped me a lot to do it. In the end the victory came and in the way it had to be,” said Carapaz.
“I always had it in mind, it was one of the things I was missing and I was able to achieve it. I knew I could do it, I didn’t know when, I knew I had it in my legs and well today we did it and we enjoyed it a lot,” concluded the South American rider.
In the fight for the overall, yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar and white jersey Remco Evenepoel added a few seconds to Jonas Vingegaard. The Tour continues to unravel the daisy and there are only four stages left to go.