Results Tour de France 2026 stage 20 - Richard Carapaz wins on Alpe d'Huez as Sepp Kuss suffers late crash; Pogacar defends yellow jersey

Stage 20 of the Tour de France was the second consecutive day finishing on the Alpe d'Huez and the winner of the day was the KOM classification winner Richard Carapaz. The EF Education-EasyPost rider took a solo win after overtaking Sepp Kuss on the final descent after the American suffered a crash.

5450 meters of climbing on the queen stage of the Tour. The Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Galibier and Col de Sarenne came before the hilltop finish at Alpe d'Huez, making for a brutal day of racing where altitude was also a big factor in play. Richard Carapaz would seal his KOM classification on the first climbs of the day, starting it on the Col de la Croix de Fer where a solo effort earned him maximum points. Mads Pedersen also went on to seal the green jersey after a tremendous climb which saw him attack the peloton towards the summit and then catch the breakaway.

Visma had Kuss, Jorgenson, Armirail and Piganzoli all present and drived the group forward together with EF Education - EasyPost who had Ben Healy working for Carapaz; and Netcompany INEOS who had Tobias Foss who was working for Thymen Arensman.

Carapaz attacked towards the end of the Galibier and was then joined by Jai Hindley, Sepp Kuss, Matthew Riccitello and over the summit Juan Ayuso as well. On the descent Riccitello would lose contact whilst the group collaborated into the Col de Sarenne.

There was some tactical play by Carapaz, but after a few attacks, it was Kuss who put his rivals on full blast with 24 kilometers to go. The Visma rider went solo, with Carapaz and Hindley linking up on the ascent, but eventually only the EF rider could keep the gap stable to Kuss.

The Galibier was mostly climbed at the pace of UAE, with the team looking to save some of its riders beyond the climb, a plan that ultimately didn't come to be. Tadej Pogacar eventually hit the front of the group working for Isaac del Toro in the final kilometers of the climb, thinning down the group only to a few riders. Evenepoel, Seixas, Del Toro and Lenny Martínez followed; whilst Mattias Skjelmose was then caught on the descent. Juan Ayuso's gap came down on Sarenne, ending his GC raid.

On that climb, Tadej Pogacar led most of the way up the climb, controlling the race for Del Toro whilst Paul Seixas was dropped and left the fight for the podium.

The gap into the final descent already inside Alpe d'Huez was of 15 seconds, but disaster struck the Visma rider. An off-camera crash first took him down, although the American quickly got back up and remained in the lead.

Only a matter of minutes after, Kuss crashed again, almost heading down a ravine whilst leading the race. This second fall saw Richard Carapaz overtake him and take control of the race. The Ecuardorian won the stage, his second of the race after he also won stage 18 in similar fashion.

Remco Evenepoel rode to second place on the stage, dropping Isaac del Toro on the final ascent whilst Tadej Pogacar stayed with him. Sepp Kuss was third on the day whilst behind Pogacar and Del Toro celebrated the yellow and white jerseys (as well as both finishing on the final podium).