Richard Carapaz could sense an opportunity and on an iconic Tour climb like Orcieres Merlette he didn't miss it. He goes on the attack with 14 others and 3.5 km from the finish line, on his second attempt, he creates a gap.

"It's truly special for me to win here at the Tour - says the 33-year-old EF Easypost rider from Ecuador. It's something where you have to give everything of yourself, and I dedicate this victory to my family".

Following his success at Superdevoluy in 2024, here comes today's triumph in the first of three Alpine stages in this edition, a day with 3,900 meters of climbing: "It was really tough, but I waited for the right moment to attack, and in the end it proved to be the right one - continues Carapaz, enthusiastic as rarely before and celebrated by the many South Americans present at the finish line -. We knew what I had to do. Coming back to win here at the Tour is something that cost me a lot, in the end it turned out to be a very beautiful stage, the most beautiful one for me. Incredible".

Wearer of the polka dot jersey for climbers in 2024, Carapaz won the Giro in 2019 and finished third at the Tour in 2021, plus the Olympic road race title at Tokyo 2021, when he escaped the marking of Pogacar and Van Aert. Today the "locomotive of Carchi", as he is nicknamed, did not fail: "Winning here at the Tour has become increasingly difficult. We had planned an attacking tactic with the team, from far out, and we pulled it off".