Tour de France 2026: Carapaz wins dramatic Queen Stage

fotobureau Cor VosThe Tour de France serves up a dramatic finish to the queen stage. Sepp Kuss is in winning position when he crashes twice in the finale. Richard Carapaz flashes past him, and Kuss gives chase, but the Ecuadorian is already gone. Carapaz takes the stage win. (Slideshow route/profile)

Stage 20 Results – 2026 Tour de France

1. Richard Carapaz (ecu)
2. Remco Evenepoel (bel) + 0:26
3. Sepp Kuss (usa) + 0:31
4. Tadej Pogacar (slo) + 1:05
5. Isaac del Toro (mex) s.t.
6. Lenny Martinez (fra) + 1:07
7. Jai Hindley (aus) + 2:15
8. Mattias Skjelmose (den) + 2:55
9. Juan Ayuso (spa) s.t.
10. Paul Seixas (fra) s.t.

16. Tom Pidcock (gbr) + 9:03
20. Jordan Jegat (fra) + 20:05

GC after stage 20

1. Tadej Pogacar (slo)
2. Remco Evenepoel (bel) + 6:26
3. Isaac del Toro (mex) + 9:42
4. Paul Seixas (fra) + 11:56
5. Lenny Martinez (fra) + 13:02
6. Mattias Skjelmose (den) + 14:59
7. Juan Ayuso (spa) + 17:48
8. Richard Carapaz (ecu) + 20:00
9. Tom Pidcock (gbr) + 29:28
10. Jordan Jegat (fra) + 33:21

Race report
Georg Steinhauser, Jonas Abrahamsen, Baptiste Veistroffer, Xabier Mikel Azparren, Joris Delbove and Warren Barguil escape in the run-up to the Croix de Fer. Veistroffer and Delbove are dropped on the climb, while the peloton catches the other four with 16 kilometres remaining to the summit.

A group of 14 riders then gets away, including King of the Mountains Richard Carapaz, Thymen Arensman, Sepp Kuss, Davide Piganzoli, Juan Ayuso, Tobias Halland Johannessen, Ben Healy, Matthew Riccitello and Valentin Paret-Peintre. They open up a 1-minute lead, which Mads Pedersen sees as bridgeable, and he sets off in pursuit.

Carapaz attacks 3.5 kilometres from the summit. His rival for the mountains classification, Paret-Peintre, tries to jump across to his wheel, but cannot close the gap. The Ecuadorian is the first to summit and tightens his grip on the polka-dot jersey.

At the summit, Carapaz has a 20-second lead over Paret-Peintre and a 1-minute lead over the Arensman group, while the peloton reaches the top more than 2 minutes later.

On the descent, Paret-Peintre closes the gap to Carapaz and Pedersen and joins the chasing group. The two front groups then merge, after which the Dane wins the intermediate sprint in Saint-Julien-Mont-Denis, securing the overall victory in the points classification.

Paret-Peintre is dropped early on the Col du Télégraphe, making it easy for Carapaz to collect the maximum haul of mountain points at the summit. The peloton crests the climb 4 minutes later.

With 4.5 kilometres of climbing still to go on the Galibier, Carapaz attacks and the breakaway shatters. Only Riccitello, Hindley and Kuss manage to bridge back to the Tokyo Olympic champion, while Ayuso is forced to let a gap open but keeps them within sight.

Ayuso makes it back to the front on the descent, while Riccitello is forced to let the others go. Meanwhile, on the Galibier, Tadej Pogacar has whittled down the group of GC contenders to Remco Evenepoel, Isaac del Toro, Paul Seixas and Lenny Martinez before Mattias Skjelmose, Maxim Van Gils and Nicolas Prodhomme regain contact on the descent.

Ayuso is the first to be dropped on the Col de Sarenne, later followed by Carapaz. Behind them, Pogacar relentlessly drives the pace in the chasing group, bringing the gap down to under 3 minutes.

Kuss goes clear with 9 kilometres still to climb. Behind him, Carapaz bridges back to Hindley, and four kilometres later, the pair rejoin the American.

In the group of GC contenders, Decathlon takes over the pace-setting from Pogacar in an attempt to crack Del Toro, which would allow Seixas to move up into a podium spot. But the opposite happens: Seixas struggles on the final part of the climb.

Simultaneously, Kuss shakes off his rivals at the front of the race once again. Carapaz refuses to give up and hangs on around 30 metres back for a while, but as they approach the summit, the Visma rider steadily extends his lead.

After the summit, the Ecuadorian starts to claw his way back, setting up a thrilling finale between the two riders. The Pogacar group, meanwhile, is no longer in contention.

Kuss crashes with 7 kilometres to go, then goes down again just 1 kilometre later. Fortunately, he narrowly avoids plunging into a ravine, but Carapaz flashes past him.

Evenepoel launches his pursuit in the final 3 kilometres, while Pogacar sticks with Del Toro. The Belgian gets Kuss in his sights, but it is too late to challenge for the stage win. Carapaz thus bids farewell to the Alps in style. Not only does he secure the polka-dot jersey, he also takes his second stage win.

Evenepoel catches Kuss and sprints to second place ahead of the unfortunate American. Shortly afterwards, Pogacar and Del Toro cross the finish line celebrating. The Slovenian wins the Tour by a country mile, while the Mexican is the best young rider. He also finishes third overall, with Evenepoel taking the second step of the podium in Paris.

Another interesting read: route 20th stage 2026 Tour de France.