Richard Carapaz timed his move to perfection on Thursday, attacking on the steepest ramps of the final climb to solo clear and win stage 18 of the Tour de France at the Orcières-Merlette ski resort, as the race left the Isère valley behind and turned into the high Alps for the first of three consecutive summit finishes.
The EF Education-EasyPost rider had spent much of the stage fighting to get into the break, bridging across after a frantic split over the Côte d'Engins and the Côte de Monteynard. Once the group reached the final 15-kilometre haul up to Orcières-Merlette, Carapaz sat tight until the gradient bit hardest before launching the decisive attack that none of his fellow escapees could answer.
He held his advantage all the way to the line, crossing roughly 45 seconds clear of Mauro Schmid of Jayco-AlUla, with Matteo Jorgenson of Visma-Lease a Bike completing the podium.
"It's been a very special moment to win here at the Tour. It's something that you have to put absolutely everything into," Carapaz said afterwards, according to his team.
"It was tricky. It was a very, very tough day... I waited for the right moment, and in the end, it just happened to be at the right time," he added.
It is Carapaz's second stage win at the Tour de France, following his triumph on stage 17 in 2024, when he also claimed the polka-dot mountains jersey. The 33-year-old Ecuadorian remains one of the sport's most decorated climbers, having won the 2019 Giro d'Italia and the road race gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Further back, there was no change at the top of the general classification. Tadej Pogačar kept the yellow jersey with a commanding buffer, with Remco Evenepoel still second at 4:32 and Isaac del Toro holding third, 6:51 off the pace.
In the points competition, Mads Pedersen extended his advantage in the green jersey to 32 points as the sprinters' contest heads into its final act.
Stage 18 covered 185.2 kilometres from Voiron to Orcières-Merlette with close to 3,900 metres of climbing, the gentlest introduction of a brutal closing block that now sends the peloton deeper into the Alps over the coming two days.
