{"id":822107,"date":"2026-07-24T02:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822107\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T02:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T02:13:08","slug":"carapaz-paret-peintre-take-on-pogacar-at-the-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/822107\/","title":{"rendered":"Carapaz & Paret-Peintre take on Poga\u010dar at the Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Carapaz<\/a> won Stage 18 of the Tour de France<\/a>, and it was about time. The Ecuadorian rider from EF Education-EasyPost had tried so many times throughout the Tour and finally got what he deserved on Thursday. In addition to the victory, it also moved him up to tenth place in the general classification<\/a>, and together with Valentin Paret-Peintre<\/a>, he is closing in on Tadej Pogacar<\/a> for the polka-dot jersey. The attackers smell blood…<\/p>\n

“It’s a special day,” Carapaz said in the flash interview after winning Stage 18 solo. “It took a lot out of us, but it was a beautiful stage, and I did it for my family. My hard work is paying off\u2014that\u2019s what I love most. We\u2019ve tried several times, but we just couldn\u2019t manage to win a stage.”<\/p>\n

At the start of the stage<\/a>, Carapaz was already full of confidence. He made no secret of his ambitions: \u201cThis is a big day for us as a team. We have three chances this week, and this is the first one. We\u2019re going to give it our all, and I hope to go for the stage win\u2014that would be important for us. I\u2019ve got the legs, and that\u2019s the most important thing. It\u2019ll be tough, but the team will support me all day, so it\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carapaz and EF were sharp all day, and when the climber briefly seemed to lose the lead, he was brought back in impressive fashion. \u201cIt was a tough day, and I was on the lookout for attacks the whole time. When Soudal Quick-Step attacked with three riders, it was unusual, but it turned out to be the decisive move. Every year it gets harder to win the Tour, but I\u2019m being rewarded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the video!<\/p>\n

Mauro Schmid proves he’s among the best in the Tour de FranceIn addition to Carapaz, there were other attackers who were dreaming of the stage win. Matteo Jorgenson finished third for Visma | Lease a Bike, and Mauro Schmid<\/a>, who had taken second place in Stage 17<\/a>, also finished second the following day. \u201cI\u2019m happier with today\u2019s result than yesterday\u2019s, because there\u2019s no shame in being dropped by Carapaz on a climb like this,\u201d said the Swiss rider, expressing his respect for the stage winner.<\/p>\n

“He was clearly the strongest in the group, and I was just happy to be there,” said Schmid, who continues to prove himself among the best climbers in this Tour. He won Stage 13, finished second twice, and is becoming a threat for the final two mountain stages of the Tour. \u201cFelix (Engelhardt, ed.) put me in a really good position and gave me a fresh start for the final stretch. It was a fierce battle for the lead group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the video<\/p>\n

Paret-Peintre hopes to win the polka-dot jersey at the Tour de France<\/p>\n

There will be plenty of attackers sensing an opportunity now that the breakaway succeeded in Stage 18 and UAE Emirates-XRG, the controlling team, is dealing with illness. Valentin Paret-Peintre will be well aware of this as he battles for the polka-dot jersey. The Frenchman from Soudal Quick-Step picked up a lot of mountain points on Thursday, but he\u2019s still one point behind Pogacar. There are plenty of points up for grabs in the final two mountain stages.<\/p>\n

With Pogacar at 70 points, Paret-Peintre at 69, and Carapaz at 63, it promises to be an exciting battle for the polka-dot jersey. \u201cI suffered so much today that I can\u2019t be disappointed,\u201d said Paret-Peintre, who, with a fourth-place finish, fell just short of the polka-dot jersey. \u201cI was completely exhausted and finished where I was supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French climber also knows that the polka-dot jersey will be awarded over the next two stages leading up to Alpe d’Huez. \u201cIt was a good day for the polka-dot jersey, which motivated me to keep fighting for as many points as possible on the final climb. I\u2019ve moved up quite a bit and can still believe in my chances. It\u2019ll be tough against Pogacar and Carapaz, but we\u2019re not giving up. I can keep Carapaz in check, but Pogacar does whatever he wants.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Carapaz won Stage 18 of the Tour de France, and it was about time. The Ecuadorian rider…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,179911,49077,82,1422,262636,154883],"class_list":["post-822107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mauro-schmid","tag-richard-carapaz","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-2026","tag-valentin-paret-peintre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}