While Tour de France leader Tadej Pogačar dominated the overall classification and claimed his fourth stage victory at Isola 2000 on Friday, there was a major victory for EF Education-EasyPost on stage 19 as Richard Carapaz moved into the lead of the mountains classification.
Carapaz would have been the team's GC leader had he not crashed during the Tour de Suisse and then fallen ill just before the start of the Tour de France, but salvaged his race by wearing the maillot jaune for a day after taking the lead on stage 3 and winning stage 17 at Superdévoluy from the breakaway.
Getting into the polka dot climber's jersey was the next objective on the list and while Carapaz had to fight his way across to the day's breakaway on the first ascent of stage 19, the Col du Vars, his team made sure the Ecuadoran earned the maximum points on the climb and the second ascent, the Cime de la Bonette.
"My team did a great job to allow me to get into the breakaway on the day, and once I was there, I fought to get as many points as possible," Carapaz said.
He hoped to win the stage but lost touch with breakaway companion Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike). Ultimately, Pogačar stormed past all of the escapees to snatch the stage win.
"I was aware that the climb is very tough and I tried to stay as close to Jorgenson as possible. However, I couldn't... and Tadej came from behind to take away any chance of victory," Carapaz said.
"Anyway, I am very happy with how the day went. This mountain jersey is a prestigious prize. All riders in my country dream of it because in Ecuador there are many mountains. Being the King of the Mountains means a lot to me. I'm going to try to keep this jersey until the end. It is my great personal goal, and the team is also supporting me a lot to achieve it."
Carapaz could count on teammate Nielson Powless to help him get across to the breakaway.
"I went back to help him get across to the breakaway, and it was probably one of the hardest five minutes of my life," Powless said. "We had a clear goal, and I knew that he was our best chance to win today and get the mountain points, so I would say I’m really satisfied with the way things worked out."
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