On the second consecutive day of racing on the iconic Alpe d’Huez, Richard Carapaz delivered an aggressive lone victory to lock up the King of the Mountains jersey, his second stage win in three days. The Ecuadorian was part of the early break that splintered on the hors catégorie ascents of the Croix de Fer, Galibier and Sarenne, and he clawed his way back to the American Sepp Kuss after the latter had attacked with 17 kilometres remaining. Carapaz crossed the line 26 seconds ahead of the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, with a bloodied and shaken Kuss hanging on for third.

The defining image came inside the final five kilometres, as Kuss – looking exhausted but in control – mistimed a right-hand bend on the descent towards the resort, slid into a roadside barrier and was only saved by protective netting from a more serious fall. He remounted but crashed again moments later, allowing Carapaz to surge past and seal a triumph that, from Quito to Cuenca, was celebrated as proof of his resilience in a Tour he has animated relentlessly.

Behind the stage hunters, the general classification was being quietly settled. Tadej Pogačar, the race leader by over six minutes, chose not to chase stage glory and instead shepherded his young UAE Team Emirates colleague Isaac del Toro, whose third place overall was under threat from the French revelation Paul Seixas. Pogačar talked the Mexican up the Sarenne, let Evenepoel ride clear on the final climb and crossed the line with an arm around del Toro, a gesture that European commentators read as a symbolic passing of the baton inside the dominant team of the 2026 edition.

Barring catastrophe on Sunday’s truncated final stage, Pogačar will become the fifth man to win five Tours, joining Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault and Indurain. The Slovenian has left open the possibility of a final-day sprint on the shortened, 89-kilometre route through Montmartre to the Champs-Élysées, but his mind is already on legacy. “I definitely won’t do this too long,” he said of his career, even as a record-extending era seems only to be gathering pace.