Not even a week ago, the prospect of Tadej Pogačar winning multiple jersey competitions at the 2026 Tour de France was more than plausible; in fact, it seemed nearly inevitable. Not only did the four-time (soon to be five) Tour winner have a yawning gap to second place in the general classification, but he handily led the King of the Mountains competition as well, after a second-place finish on the Plateau de Solaison left him with a 22-point lead over his nearest competitor for the polka-dot jersey.
With a pile of high-mountain stages to come including three summit finishes, the prospects of someone else taking the competition were slight. Fortunately for the polka-dot jersey, one of those "someone else" contenders was Richard Carapaz. The EF Education-EasyPost captain is a top climber and former Grand Tour winner and Olympic gold medalist. But his chief attribute as regards the KOM competition is probably his straightforward professionalism and work ethic. That is: Richard Carapaz gets the job done.
"There were moments when I didn't think I could do it. It was really difficult for me today," said Carapaz of his ride for the stage 20 win, his second in the race. "Once we passed the first few climbs, I changed my mind and figured I'd go for the stage win as well."
All pro riders are pros, in the sense that they are paid to do a job whether that job is glamorous and glorious or anonymous and anodyne. But sometimes a bit of the latter can help a rider achieve the former. So it is as well for Mads Pedersen. The Lidl-Trek rider has his own strong palmarès including a World Road Championship and three wins in Gent-Wevelgem. He's also taken three career Tour stages, but never the race's points competition.
Pedersen signaled early and publicly that the green jersey commonly awarded to the best sprinter was his chief objective for the Tour, and then he set about, early, in making that a reality. No one had any doubts about his goals when he joined the breakaway way back on stage 4, and although all eyes were on him, he fought his way back to the front after being dropped in the late going and proceeded to handily win the 10-rider sprint, thanks in part to yeomanlike teamwork from Mathias Vacek and Quinn Simmons in the final. The green jersey has been his to defend ever since.
All great competitions have tension in them, and that requires the presence of another protagonist (or an antagonist, if you're choosing sides). In Pedersen's case, that came from an unlikely source, at least at this Tour.
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