The queen stage of the 2026 Tour de France, with four major climbs that led to a historic second consecutive finish at Alpe d'Huez, crowned Richard Carapaz. He was in a duel with Sepp Kuss, nicknamed the Eagle of Durango, who had taken the lead on the Col de Sarenne, the last major climb of the day, but crashed on the final straight and saw Carapaz overtake him. Third yesterday in the first finish at Alpe d'Huez, the Ecuadorian climber claimed his third stage victory of the Tour, his second of this edition, two days after triumphing at Orcières-Merlette. Remco Evenepoel finished second ahead of Kuss. Rounding out the top five, arm in arm, were Tadej Pogacar and Isaac del Toro, representing UAE Emirates XRG, poised to climb onto the general classification podium in Paris, with the Mexican leader set to take the white jersey and third place overall. Carapaz virtually secured the polka-dot jersey, while Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) did the same for the green jersey.
On the second stage to Alpe d'Huez, the riders skipped the legendary 21-bend hairpin that crowned Tadej Pogacar on Friday, but reached the resort via the Col de Sarenne climb (12.8 km at 7.31 TP3T), the summit of which is 14.4 km from the finish. Before reaching it, they passed the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Col du Télégraphe, and the Col du Galibier, for a total elevation gain of 5,450 meters.
At the foot of the final climb to the Col de Sarenne, Tadej Pogacar led a small GC group, three and a half minutes behind the stage leaders. Up front, after a series of attacks, Kuss dropped Carapaz and Hindley three kilometers from the summit. At the summit, Carapaz passed Kuss 18 seconds behind. Kuss then crashed twice on the ensuing descent, and on the second occasion, Carapaz overtook him with six kilometers to go. Meanwhile, del Toro left Paul Seixas, his main rival for the white jersey and third place in the overall standings, behind him. Carapaz thus took his tenth Grand Tour stage victory (three at the Tour, three at the Vuelta, four at the Giro) with a 26-second advantage over Evenepoel, with Kuss in third place (+31 seconds). Arm in arm, Pogacar and del Toro crossed the finish line with a gap of 1'05". The Slovenian secured his fifth Tour. And the Mexican sits third on the overall podium behind Evenepoel.
