Tour de France: Richard Carapaz completes solo win on stage 17

Richard Carapaz completed the set of victories in cycling’s Grand Tours by winning stage 17 of the Tour de France.

Carapaz had won stages at the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, as well as Olympic road race gold, but earned his first Tour de France stage triumph with a superb solo victory in the Alps.

The Education-EasyPost rider also becomes the first man from Ecuador to win a stage at the Tour.

Behind Carapaz, who beat Britain’s Simon Yates into second, Tadej Pogacar was 27th, but increased his general classification lead over Jonas Vingegaard by two seconds – it now stands at three minutes and 11 seconds.

The Slovenian, seeking a third overall victory in the race, made a surprise attack late on only to be caught by last year’s winner Vingegaard, but beat his rival in a sprint for the line to increase his general classification lead slightly.

Remco Evenepoel, third overall, finished the stage in 26th, 10 seconds ahead of Pogacar and 12 clear of Vingegaard.

It means that in the general classification standings, Evenepoel now trails Vingegaard by just under two minutes.