ORCIÈRES: Barnaby CHESTERMAN Ecuador's Richard Carapaz climbed to victory on the Alpine 18th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday as race leader Tadej Pogacar lost a key team-mate to illness.
Former Giro d'Italia winner Carapaz attacked his five breakaway companions with just over three kilometres to ride and cruised to his second Tour stage victory, with Swiss Mauro Schmid beating American Matteo Jorgenson to second place.
Pogacar finished safely alongside his main rivals around four-and-a-half minutes later, but he was counting the cost of a couple of damaging days as Brandon McNulty was forced to pull out.
That came just a day after another team-mate, Adam Yates, struggled home 26 minutes after stage 17 winner Jasper Philipsen after suffering from an upset stomach.
"It's totally different because Adam had stomach troubles, he was vomiting, and Brandon has a type of constipation," said UAE Emirates-XRG sports manager Matxin Joxean Fernandez.
"When you don't have a fever, you're not positive for COVID, nor the flu, nor anything, but your throat hurts, you have mucus, a headache.
"That's what Brandon felt today, right from this morning."
Both McNulty and Yates, whom Pogacar said were getting better, are crucial mountain lieutenants for the reigning champion.
UAE's problems - Tim Wellens also said on Thursday morning that he was not feeling well - could not have come at a worse time.
The next two stages, which both finish atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez mountain, will be brutally tough.
"I'm really sad that today Brandon felt so bad and he could not finish," said Pogacar.
"We will miss him the next two days, obviously, but I think Adam is getting better and tomorrow I think we'll go with the flow.
"We survive tomorrow's stage, try to come to Alpe d'Huez and see what we can do."
Pogacar still leads Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel by four and a half minutes in the overall standings and, unless he too falls ill, will remain the favourite to win Friday's stage.
He is on course to claim a record-equalling fifth Tour victory to join cycling legends Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.
"It's the third week, all the teams are a bit suffering," said the 27-year-old Slovenian, the current two-time world champion.
"You can see the bodies everywhere on the stage like today already.
"We will keep fighting and I believe we can do it."
- 'Very emotional' -
In winning the stage, Carapaz also closed in on the polkadot jersey for the King of the Mountains competition - which he won in 2024 when he earned his first stage win.
That is still held by Pogacar, but Carapaz is now only seven points behind.
Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre came close to stripping Pogacar of the polkadot jersey, but fell one place and one point short as he came home in fourth.
"It was a totally crazy day, I went in every breakaway I think - you had to be smart," Carapaz said.
"I knew it was a climb (to the finish) which suited me, I'm feeling very emotional.
"It was such a hard day, I've nothing else to say - you have to enjoy it."
On the final 7-km climb at the end of the 185.2km stage from Voiron to Orcieres-Merlette, Carapaz tried a first attack, but Paret-Peintre stuck doggedly to his wheel.
Jorgenson also tried his luck, as did Norwegian Tobias Johannessen.
But it was Carapaz's second foray which stuck, with no one able to react.
In the group of favourites, the lack of Pogacar's climbing generals was felt, as for once, it was up to other teams to set the pace.
Eighth-placed Tom Pidcock's Pinarello-Q36.5 and ninth-placed Jordan Jegat's TotalEnergies teams set about closing the gap to the break once their lead had reached eight minutes.
Carapaz, who moved up to 10th overall, was starting to threaten their places with such a lead, but their teams did enough to keep him at arm's length. — AFP
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