Richard Carapaz took a fantastic second stage victory at the 2026 Tour de France on the top of the Alpe d'Huez, just 24 hours after he and his breakaway mates – including Sepp Kuss – were caught by stage 19 winner Tadej Pogačar.
On the ferociously challenging stage 20, Carapaz and Kuss set off into the breakaway once more, and this time they stayed the course. On the long climb up the Col de Sarenne, Kuss appeared to be the stronger rider, and he led into the last rolling 8 km, but not one but two crashes put an end to his escape, and Carapaz swept past the American to lead the race onto the top 3.6 km of the Alpe d'Huez with a gap he could be confident of holding – and hold it he did, winning in polka-dots to seal his second mountains classification.
Behind the race for the stage, it was Decathlon-CMA CGM that was mobilised in an effort to make moves in the general classification, with Paul Seixas just 24 seconds off Isaac Del Toro's white jersey and third overall. The young and relatively inexperienced unit played it brilliantly, providing more support for the young Frenchman than anyone else had in the GC group, but Seixas was unable to capitalise in the end, and his day turned to one of defence rather than attack.
Remco Evenepoel was the only GC rider to go on the attack in the end as Pogačar guided Del Toro to the line. Evenepoel pushed on in the last few kilometres and ultimately finished just 26 seconds after Carapaz, five seconds ahead of Kuss. Pogačar and Del Toro finished side by side a minute five seconds down, just ahead of Lenny Martinez who's been racing brilliantly in the third week. So good, in fact, that he was the rider putting Seixas under most threat, but his young compatriot finished well enough to secure fourth overall.
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89795 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=17 stage_id=89795 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
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