Carapaz wins Tour de France queen stage after Kuss crashes; Pogacar all but seals fifth title

Queen stage delivers drama on Alpe d'Huez

The 20th and penultimate stage of the Tour de France ran 170.9 kilometres from Le Bourg-d'Oisans to the ski resort of Alpe d'Huez, crossing three hors-catégorie climbs (the Croix de Fer, the Galibier, and the Col de Sarenne) and accumulating 5,450 metres of vertical gain. A large breakaway of 15 riders went clear on the first climb, populated by the same names who had animated the high mountains all week: Richard Carapaz, Sepp Kuss, Thymen Arensman, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Tobias Halland Johannessen, and this time also Juan Ayuso, who was trying to bounce back from a heavy loss on Alpe d'Huez a day earlier.

Pedersen and Carapaz lock up secondary classifications

While the break fought for the stage, two jersey battles reached a conclusion. On the descent of the Croix de Fer, Mads Pedersen bridged across, took the intermediate sprint, and collected 25 points. That lifted the Dane to an 82-point lead over Jasper Philipsen in the points classification; with only a maximum of 75 points available on the final stage, the green jersey is now his. Shortly afterwards, Carapaz gathered the climbing points on the Col du Télégraphe and later on the Galibier, securing the polka-dot jersey so long as he finishes in Paris on Sunday. By the summit of the Galibier the lead group was down to five: Carapaz, Kuss, Ayuso, Jai Hindley, and Matthew Riccitello.

Kuss crashes twice, hands Carapaz the stage

Sepp Kuss, the American former Vuelta a España winner, threw everything at the stage on the Col de Sarenne. He attacked alone and built a gap, but Carapaz and Hindley clawed back to his wheel with five kilometres still to climb. Kuss went again and crested the summit first. The descent became his undoing: under sustained pressure from Carapaz, Kuss missed a corner, fell, rushed back onto his bike, and then crashed a second time moments later. Carapaz rode through and powered up the final ramp to Alpe d'Huez to take his second stage win of the race.

Remco Evenepoel, who had been riding in the group of favourites together with Tadej Pogačar and Isaac del Toro, attacked inside the final kilometre and passed the battered Kuss on the line to finish second, two seconds behind Carapaz. Kuss held on for third. Pogačar, who spent the day shielding his Mexican teammate del Toro's podium position and white jersey, crossed fourth at 1:05, in the same time as del Toro.

Pogačar all but seals fifth Tour victory

With only the largely processional final stage to the Champs-Élysées remaining, Pogačar's overall lead stands at 6 minutes 26 seconds over Evenepoel. Del Toro sits third, 9:42 behind his leader, and leads the young rider classification by 2:14 over Frenchman Paul Seixas. Barring catastrophe on the streets of Paris, Pogačar will collect his fifth Tour de France title. Lidl-Trek will also leave the Tour as the best team, a classification that was effectively sealed during the queen stage.

The final stage on Sunday will offer little threat to the general classification, leaving only the traditional sprint on the Champs-Élysées to contest before the podium ceremonies in Paris.