Richard Carapaz's yellow dream only lasted one day and had a bit of a bittersweet ending. The Ecuadorian cracked on Col du Galibier and lost the leader's jersey to Tadej Pogacar. Still, Carapaz enjoyed his day in the yellow jersey, as he hinted before the stage that he didn't expect to keep hold of it in Valloire.
"The truth is that it was a very, very hard day," Carapaz told the EF Education-EasyPost website. "There was an incredible pace and when we got to the final climb it was too hard for me. I tried to hang on until the end but my legs didn’t want to anymore."
"Then I continued with Ben," he said, referring to his teammate Ben Healy who made company for the yellow jersey on his long road to Valloire. "We were going pretty fast. I enjoyed the day, that’s the most important thing. It was a historic day for the team."
Carapaz crossed the line in Valloire in 32nd place, 5:10 behind stage winner Tadej Pogacar. The Ecuadorian thus falls through the GC ranks all the way to 22nd overall and he's likely to lose even more time in the stage 7 time trial. It seems that we might see the 31-year-old fight in the breakaways in the third week.