Ecuadorian Carapaz Wins 20th Stage of Tour de France

Ecuador's Richard Carapaz won the 20th stage of the Tour de France on Saturday, July 25. He crossed the finish line at the famous mountain climb of Alpe d'Huez. Carapaz took the victory after American rider Sepp Kuss crashed two times in the final few kilometers. It was his second stage win in just three days, and it also earned him the mountains classification title.

Carapaz rides for the team EF Education-EasyPost. The stage covered 170.9 kilometers, starting from the town of Le Bourg-d'Oisans. His sports director, Charlie Wegelius, praised the rider's toughness after the finish. 'He showed perseverance. He just kept on going,' Wegelius said.

Early in the stage, Carapaz and Kuss broke away from the main group of riders. They were joined by Australian rider Jai Hindley, and the three quickly became the strongest riders in the breakaway group. With 17 kilometers left, Kuss attacked and pulled ahead, opening up a small lead. It looked like the American was going to win the stage.

However, Kuss's luck ran out in a tunnel, where he crashed for the first time. He crashed again on a downhill section shortly after. While Kuss was struggling to recover, Carapaz caught up and rode past him. The Ecuadorian did not slow down and pushed hard all the way to the finish line.

Carapaz finished 31 seconds ahead of Kuss. Belgium's Remco Evenepoel passed Kuss in the final meters to take second place, finishing 26 seconds behind Carapaz. Kuss ended up in third place after leading for much of the final stretch. It was a dramatic reversal of fortune in the closing moments of the race.

Race leader Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia safely finished the tough mountain stage. He leads the overall race by more than seven minutes over Evenepoel. Pogacar is almost certain to win his fifth Tour de France title when the race ends in Paris on Sunday. Instead of racing for the stage win himself, he spent much of the day helping his teammate Isaac del Toro.

Del Toro, who is from Mexico, held on to third place overall. He finished fifth on Saturday's stage after leaving French teenager Paul Seixas behind on a hard climb called the Col de Sarenne. Seixas had been only 24 seconds behind del Toro in the fight for the final podium spot. After Saturday's stage, he now trails del Toro by 2 minutes and 14 seconds going into Sunday's finale.

Sunday's final stage in Paris has been shortened from 133 kilometers to just 89 kilometers. Race organizers and police said the change was made so that security workers could be moved to help fight wildfires burning near the city of Bordeaux. The shorter route will still bring the riders into Paris for the traditional finish of one of the world's greatest sporting events.