Tour de France stage 20: Richard Carapaz wins Queen Stage after Sepp Kuss crashes twice in thrilling finale

Stage 20 of the 2026 Tour de France was the toughest on this year’s slate, and it duly served up a wonderful day of racing on Saturday. Richard Carapaz, dressed in the polka dot jersey, sealed his second stage win of this year’s race after a brutal battle with Sepp Kuss, which saw the American crash twice in the run-in to Alpe d’Huez and hand the advantage to the Ecuadorian.

Behind them, Tadej Pogačar nursed Isaac Del Toro to third place in the podium battle, the pair distancing French hope Paul Seixas on the final climb of the day, the yellow jersey even staying with his young Mexican teammate as Remco Evenepoel pushed on in the closing kilometres to take second place on the stage.

It was a decisive day all round, with Mads Pedersen securing the green jersey after a monumental effort to cross to the break on the Col de la Croix-de-Fer, while Carapaz’s efforts throughout the day saw him confirm first place in the King of the Mountains competition.

Jacob Whitehead and Tim Spiers break down the key moments from an epic day.

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Carapaz, with legs of iron, home again in the high mountains

“I must be the professional that lives at the highest altitude in the whole peloton,” Richard Carapaz, from the remote Ecuadorian province of Carchi, told The Athletic last spring. “You can see there’s a benefit, because it’s not the same thing to live at sea level and go uphill to adapt. My family has lived at altitude for five generations — genetically, my body is made to survive 3000m.”

Compared to the humid heat of South America, Carapaz claims he finds the drier air of Europe easier — and as the Tour reached its highest summits over the final days, the EF Education-EasyPost rider has become the defining mover of the race. His results over the last three days: first, third, first — a true king of the mountains.

By winning on Alpe d’Huez on Saturday, he became the first rider to win a Tour stage in the polka dot jersey since Julian Alaphilippe in 2018 — an achievement which is all the more remarkable for the energy he has expended over the past 72 hours.

Permanently in the breakaway, face to the wind, he has spent under 100km of the 470km in the bunch, being drafted and saving his legs. Winning on stage 20 owed something to Kuss’ crashes, but that is bike racing. The relentless Carapaz pressured the American on the descents and put himself in the position to profit.

After narrowly missing out on the Giro d’Italia last May, Carapaz has continued to build a palmares which arguably places him as the greatest South American rider of all time — his accolades including the Giro d’Italia, Olympic gold, and now his 10th Grand Tour stage win.

In a race in which several exciting talents have been content to ride conservatively to preserve their places in the lower reaches of the general classification, such as Juan Ayuso and Jordan Jegat, Carapaz has shown there is another way — to not be afraid of losing time, with greater moments in mind.

Crossing the line and pointing to the sky, in memory of his mother Ana who died suddenly in late January, it is clear Carapaz made the right decision.

Jacob Whitehead

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Two Kuss crashes cost him victory, but it could have been so much worse

When Sepp Kuss closes his eyes tonight he’ll be thinking of that right-hand bend.

Oh, Sepp. He had the Queen Stage in the palm of his hand.

With just 7km to go the American, a man for whom Grand Tour stage victories can be few and far between owing to his usual role as a Visma–Lease a Bike superdomestique for Jonas Vingegaard, had a steady 20-second lead on Carapaz, plus 90 seconds on Pogacar’s GC group.

Then, off he came, chasing too hard, taking risks on the descent heading out a tunnel (with a wet road) on the entry to Alpe d’Huez.

However, it was only a minor fall and Kuss seemingly regained his composure, still with a 10-second lead on the advancing Carapaz, who by now could literally smell blood.

A kilometre later, on a sharp right-hander, a shaky Kuss was now under serious pressure and pushed too hard, going wide and into a knee-high wall.

As he remounted, grazed, bruised and distraught, a gleeful Carapaz flew past him, never to be seen again.

Given that a raft of sturdy red netting helped cushion Kuss’ shoulder and prevented him from possibly being flung down a steep verge, the American will ultimately be extremely grateful only losing the lead of stage 20. Without the netting, it could have been much, much worse.

“I was trying to maintain the gap to Carapaz, trying to make the most out of every corner, misjudged a corner, and was in too much of a hurry,” he said after the stage. “It could have been much worse. For me it wasn’t that scary, there was some netting there.”

As he ambled home in third place, blood dribbling down his arm, 30 seconds behind Carapaz and with no intention of competing with Evenepoel on the line for second, Kuss looked utterly devastated.

His last Grand Tour stage victory came in 2023 (the year he won the Vuelta), with his one and only Tour win coming way back in 2021. The combativity award for his efforts in Saturday’s stage will be scant consolation.

He may never get a better chance again and, on the Queen Stage, losing his cool at the crucial juncture will surely haunt him for years to come.

Tim Spiers

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Del Toro denies Seixas podium and white jersey, while Evenepoel finishes strongly

For a teenager who has felt surrounded by a nation for the past three weeks, it was eerie that Paul Seixas’ podium challenge ended on the ghostly surrounds of the Col de Sarenne, finally dropped decisively by Isaac del Toro in the final kilometres of a climb closed to fans.

Seixas has met virtually every expectation placed upon him in this race, the youngest rider to attempt the Tour de France since the Second World War. It briefly looked as if it might end with the white jersey — and third place.

Del Toro looked in trouble on the upper slopes of the fearsome Col du Galibier, dropping back briefly and calling into his radio, and Seixas’ Decathlon CMA CGM team responded — raising the pace over the Col de Sarenne, a protected bio-reserve — through Nicolas Prodhomme.

But when the moment came, with three weeks of hard, scorching racing in his legs, Seixas contorted, impelled, and ground himself uphill, without the ability to raise the pace. Fellow debutant Del Toro, who has shown remarkable powers of recovery already, responded with an attack.

Pogacar, effectively, served as a domestique for Del Toro in these kilometres; the sight of the yellow jersey leading the white, marking Seixas, was an inversion of the accepted order — reminiscent of Bradley Wiggins leading out Mark Cavendish on the Champs-Élysées back in 2012.

It looks like 🇲🇽 Isaac del Toro and 🇸🇮 Tadej Pogacar were preparing something 🗣️

Quelque chose se préparait chez @TeamEmiratesUAE 🗣️#TDF2026 pic.twitter.com/N7UeVFN07o

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 25, 2026

Earlier that morning, UAE Team Emirates manager Joxean Fernández, known as Matxin, told The Athletic that Pogacar was likely to be used in this manner — had the Slovenian attacked at the bottom of the Sarenne, as he did on Alpe d’Huez on Saturday, he likely would have won the stage himself.

“We spoke of this in the meeting today,” Matxin said. “We want to maintain the podium, the situation of the white jersey, and the gap is really tight. In those moments, he will help Isaac. It’s the last mountain day, and he will follow Seixas to achieve this.”

Pogacar’s loyalty to Del Toro — as well as the opportunity for the pair to cross the line together, almost two minutes clear of Seixas — allowed Remco Evenepoel to escape up the road, eventually overhauling Kuss for second place, and closing to within 21 seconds of Carapaz.

Despite his palmares, as a Monument winner, double Olympic champion, and former red jersey at the Vuelta a Espana, the Belgian had questions to answer entering this Tour. His top climbing form had been missing for the previous two years, with last year’s race characterised by two explosions in the Pyrenees.

Here, he delivered some of the best performances of his career — and even without Vingegaard’s injuries, may not have been far off the Dane in the battle for second.

Jacob Whitehead

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In praise of Mads Pedersen

Mads Pedersen is quite something.

On Wednesday he looked utterly bereft after Jasper Philipsen won stage 17 to narrow the Dane’s lead at the top of the points classification to just two.

Since then? Three gruelling mountain stages in the Alps, three intermediate sprint victories for Pedersen and he secured the green jersey with a stage to spare. He may as well have uttered ‘what were you worried about?’ when he picked up another 25 points here to secure an unassailable leader before the final dash into Paris on Sunday.

💚 Mads Pedersen wins the intermediate sprint. The green jersey isn’t mathematically secured yet; but it will be at the finish line later on.

💚 Mads Pedersen passe en tête au sprint intermédiaire. Le maillot vert n’est pas encore mathématiquement assuré, mais il le sera à… pic.twitter.com/rxchN98Nyk

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 25, 2026

It was some feat. Pedersen has only won one stage (so far) at this year’s Tour, compared to three for Tim Merlier (who abandoned on stage 15) and one for his fellow Belgian Philipsen, but there is more than one way to win the green jersey and Pedersen, in the style of Peter Sagan or Sean Kelly before him, did so by hoovering up those intermediate sprints even on big mountain days like today.

Pedersen was initially dropped by the peloton at the start of the day, but dragged himself up the Col de la Croix de Fer, ensconced himself back into the main group, then went off the front to successfully chase down the break and win an unchallenged intermediate sprint to claim the green jersey.

It was a remarkable show of strength, grit and willpower.

Pedersen has now won all three grand tour points classifications and is just the sixth rider ever to do so, after Eddy Merckx, Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Laurent Jalabert, Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Cavendish. His permanent chapter in the cycling hall of fame has been written.

Tim Spiers

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Stage 20 top 10

1. Richard Carapaz | EF Education Easypost (4:59:39)
2. Remco Evenepoel | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (+26s)
3. Sepp Kuss | Visma-Lease a Bike (+31s)
4. Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates – XRG (+1m 5s)
5. Isaac del Toro | UAE Team Emirates – XRG (+1m 5s)
6. Lenny Martinez | Bahrain Victorious (+1m 7s)
7. Jai Hindley | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (+2m 15s)
8. Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl Trek (+2m 55s)
9. Juan Ayuso | Lidl Trek (+2m 55s)
10. Paul Seixas | Decathlon CMA CGM (+2m 55s)

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General classification after stage 20

1. Tadej Pogačar | UAE Team Emirates – XRG (72:53:44)
2. Remco Evenepoel | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (+6m 26s)
3. Isaac Del Toro | UAE Team Emirates – XRG (+9m 42s)
4. Paul Seixas | Decathlon CMA CGM Team (+11m 56s)
5. Lenny Martinez | Bahrain – Victorious (+13m 02s)
6. Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl Trek (+14m 59s)
7. Juan Ayuso | Lidl Trek (+17m 48s)
8. Richard Carapaz | EF Education-Easypost (+20m 00s)
9. Tom Pidcock | Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling (+29m 28s)
10. Jordan Jegat | TotalEnergies (+33m 21s)

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Who’s wearing the jerseys after stage 20?

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What’s coming up tomorrow?

Stage 21 – Sunday, July 26: Thoiry to Paris, 133km, flat

The Montmartre cobbled climb is retained after the success of last year’s final stage, though the three ascents of it have been spaced out slightly to give the sprinters more of a chance to close gaps. But if Pogačar, Van der Poel, Pidcock and others fancy it — they could easily do a ‘Van Aert 2025’ and solo to a win on the iconic Champs-Élysées finish.