Ben Healy powering away on the front of the Col du Galibier during today's queen stage of the Tour de France (Photo: Thomas Maheux)
Ben Healy's EF Education-EasyPost's relentless pursuit of stage win success on Tour de France 2026 looked like it may come up short. But two stage wins in three days, and winning the climbers' classification, have made for huge success for the team.
On the penultimate stage of the race today, to a summit finish on Alpe d'Huez, Carapaz hoovered up the points he needed to win the climbers' classification, before going on to win the stage.
And - yet again, for the seventh road stage running - it was Irishman Healy up the road aiding and abetting Carapaz, on the queen stage of this race.
Healy today got into the early breakaway with Carapaz and then dragged the move up the Col du Télégraphe (12km at 7.1 per cent) and Col du Galibier (17.7km at 6.9 per cent).
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🔻 In unusual circumstances following Sepp Kuss’s crash, Richard Carapaz was this time able to make the most of his final kilometre in solo action to claim victory at Alpe d’Huez!
🔻 Dans des circonstances spéciales après la chute de Sepp Kuss, Richard Carapaz a cette fois pu… pic.twitter.com/VEeNlJHiD8
— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 25, 2026
The heat took the full poke out of Healy's Tour de France challenge this year, and he was also a little below last year, when he won a stage and held the yellow jersey for two days.
But there was no sulking, no feeling sorry for himself. Instead, he has been on the attack relentlessly over the last seven stages - making the breakaway each time and spending 700km up the road.
And it was all in the service of Carapaz, with Healy showing his true character, even when his form meant he was not going for his own results.
Today, Healy had emptied himself with about 7km remaining to the top of the Col du Galibier. He pulled over and was done for the day, leaving Carapaz in a seven-man breakaway.
At that point, the breakaway had four minutes and a fighting chance of making it all the way.
Richard Carapaz put in a huge ride for another stage win, also claiming victory in the climbers' classification (Photo: Thomas Maheux)
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Behind the breakaway, for once, race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was not concerned with the stage win.
Instead, he sought to escort his younger team mate, Isaac del Toro, into the finish, ensuring he remained 3rd overall and leader of the young rider classification.
The UAE duo managed to drop Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team), the 19-year-old who is 4th overall and the only man who could have taken the GC 3rd place and the young rider white jersey from del Toro.
Even when Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) rode away from Pogačar and del Toro in the select group on the final climb, they did not respond.
Up ahead, the breakaway had come down to two men; Carapaz and Sepp Kuss (Visma Lease a Bike), with Kuss getting ahead, very slight, on the penultimate climb - Col de Sarenne (13km, at 7.2 per cent).
Pogačar and Del Toro wrapped up a team 1-3 on the GC and the young rider classification (Photo: Thomas Maheux)
However, Carapaz was never dead and buried and always threatened to get back to Kuss. That pressure of having Carapaz just seconds behind, saw Kuss crash twice on the descent, just before the final stretch of climbing, on Alpe d'Huez began.
The second fall resulted in Carapaz shooting past Kuss and taking the win solo. Kuss was then caught by Evenepoel, who was 2nd at 26 seconds, with Kuss 3rd at 31 seconds.
They came Pogačar and del Toro, in 4th and 5th, at 1:05, with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) just two seconds behind.
Seixas, who was dropped on the penultimate climb, got into a group with the Lidl Trek duo of Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso; finishing at 2:55.
Healy, after all his efforts, came home in 31st at 26:59.
The race concludes tomorrow with a stage that will be confined to Paris, as the demands wildfires are putting on the emergency services have seen it shortened to 89km.
Pogačar has his fifth Tour win in the bag, leading overall from double stage winner Evenepoel, by 6:26. Del Toro is 3rd at 9:42.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek), after such an aggressive Tour and a win on stage 4, has won the points classification and Carapaz is the king of the mountains.
