Tadej Pogacar is in a class of his own. © APA/afp / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT

This Pogacar just can’t stop

Richard Carapaz has won the 17th stage of the 111th Tour de France. After the hilly 177,8 kilometers between Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux and the winter sports resort of Superdevoluy, the Olympic champion from Ecuador won as a soloist ahead of Briton Simon Yates and Enric Mas from Spain. Tadej Pogacar has slightly extended his overall lead, and the Slovenian also showed a mini demonstration of power at the finish.

July 17, 2024

From: dpa/dl

Pogacar attacked his opponent Jonas Vingegaard with just under five kilometers to go, but the Danish defending champion was initially able to parry the attack. Then the two-time Tour winner sprinted again and arrived a few seconds earlier than Vingegaard. Both provided a foretaste of the tough mountain days to come.

Exceptional rider Pogacar continues to lead Vingegaard with a comfortable lead of 3:11 minutes. Belgian time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel finished ahead of the other two favorites and made up some time. He is in third place, 5:09 minutes behind Pogacar. Felix Gall mostly stayed in a group with the top riders and, in eleventh place (+19:04 mins), is only about half a minute behind the top ten.

Carapaz with tour premiere

For Carapaz, it is the first Tour stage win of his career. The professional has only managed stage wins at the Giro d'Italia and the Spanish Vuelta. In 2019, he even won the Giro. The climbing specialist will be particularly pleased about this, as the winner of the gold medal in Tokyo (2021) was not nominated by his national association for the games soon to be held in Paris. Jhonatan Narvaez will take part instead.

Richard Carapaz won his first stage. © APA/afp / MARCO BERTORELLO

The breakaway riders will be in demand again on Thursday. The professional cyclists will have to tackle 18 kilometers on five smaller climbs on the 179,5th stage between Gap and Barcelonnette. There are two tough Alpine stages on Friday and Saturday. The Tour de France ends on Sunday with an individual time trial in Nice.