Ecuador’s Carapaz wins Tour de France 18th stage, Pogacar loses key climbing teammate

Ecuador's Richard Carapaz emerged from a six-man group to climb to victory on the Alpine 18th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday. The former Giro d'Italia winner attacked his breakaway companions with just over three kilometres to ride and cruised to his second Tour stage victory, with Swiss Mauro Schmid beating American Matteo Jorgenson to take second place. Read morePhilipsen wins Tour de France 17th stage as Pogacar retains overall lead Carapaz also closed in on the polka-dot jersey for the King of the Mountains competition – which he won in 2024 when he earned his first stage win. Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre came close to stripping race leader Tadej Pogacar of the polka-dot jersey, but fell one place and one point short as he came home in fourth. Carapaz is now just seven points behind the Slovenian. Pogacar came home in a group of 13 riders containing the top 10 in the overall standings to maintain his four-and-a-half-minute lead over Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel. But with back-to-back finishes on Alpe d'Huez from Friday, Pogacar suffered a blow as one of his key teammates Brandon McNulty abandoned the race. A day after another teammate in Adam Yates struggled of...