The Ecuadorian condor soared to the summit of the ski station in Superdévoluy, parting the crowds that had gathered on the mountain’s slopes, before celebrating his country’s first ever Tour de France stage win. With this victory, Richie completes his trilogy of stage wins in all three grand tours.

Richie was on a mission today. After wearing the yellow jersey early on in this Tour de France, he and his teammates had attacked and attacked, taking the fight to the peloton every chance they got, but until now they hadn’t got the stage win that they had come for. Today, we were determined to change that.

The peloton raced stage 17 flat out from the start. Attacks flew as soon as the commissaire dropped his flag and kept flying as the peloton sped into the foothills of the Alps. With crosswinds blowing, the pace was relentless. Our team’s job was to keep Richie in contention until the race hit the mountains and every single one of our riders did his part, pulling back moves until Richie broke clear with a great group soon after the intermediate sprint before Gap.

With the Col du Bayard, Col du Noyer, and Superdévoluy still to come, it was time for the Olympic champion to do what he does best: climb.

Richie stayed calm on the Bayard, spinning his legs and catching his breath to recover from the searing efforts he had to put in during the first half of the stage. And then, on the Col du Noyer, he gritted his teeth and took off.

Our Ecuadorian condor soared up to the first attackers and left them in his dust. No one was going to stop Richard Carapaz today.

He flew down the descent and put time into his chasers all the way to the top of Superdévoluy, where he had time to celebrate one of the most spectacular wins of his career.

Congratulations, Richie. Congratulations, team. We’re drinking champagne tonight!

This victory means everything! I’ve been trying to get it since the start of the Tour, that was the goal. In the general classification we are very far away, but the hope remained of winning a stage.

It was a very difficult day, with a lot of attacks, but in the end, a large group formed. I was able to come out at the right time and I managed to get this result which I will remember forever. I really made the most of the moment. I knew the final well having studied it with my sports director.

I had won stages in the Giro and the Vuelta but the Tour de France is the race with all the best riders in the world. Each team comes with its best set-up and its best squad. The Tour is the best race. I am also happy for all the people who follow me. I'm proud to be here and represent the Americas in the best possible way.

It was so hard, so, so hard. It was a crazy stage to be honest. I was there in every move. There was a moment where I got caught in the wind, but then I got back and away with a group.

It was a very big group, which was in our advantage for the win and a good chance for me, because I let them work on the first two climbs.

I knew that I was going to be very marked but I got into the group on the descent of the first climb and was the first to get across to Yates who was the one who went for it at the beginning.

I let him have a couple of meters, and waited and waited and knew that those last two kilometers were super hard and that I could make myself a very big gap there that was big enough to get to the line.

Today we arrived here with the plan to win a stage and that’s how it went so I am incredibly happy for that.

It was an amazing victory for Richard. On the second to last climb, Charly was on the radio, saying, “Richard, enjoy your beautiful moment.” Congrats everyone, teammates, for this victory because it’s super important for us.

We’re pretty stoked. We heard the news on the top of the second last climb. It’s a big relief for everyone. Super happy for Richie and for everyone in the organization. We’re stoked.

The whole team was working so hard, seemingly doing everything right, but it just hadn’t gone our way, so I can’t tell you how satisfying it is that Richie was finally able to pull it off. It was an incredibly hard stage. I’m incredibly proud of him and the team.

The plan was to have Richie in the break. He was the main guy to stick into the break, so every time there was a group and we were not in it, we had to do our best to close it and keep the race open, and that made the race really hard, but it went in our favor in the end.

Those guys really blew themselves to pieces to get in there. Once Richard was there, he was by himself because his teammates had basically killed themselves to get him there. We had one card to play and we played an ace.

Obviously, it was a gamble bringing him here, but ultimately you can see the level of natural talent that guy has. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. From the run in he had before the Tour de France, which was the worst run in possible, to winning a hard, hard stage in the third week of the race is just incredible. Obviously I’m full of admiration for the guy, but also I’m just flabbergasted at how talented he is that he can just bring himself round like that and just the way he played today. Tactically, there were multiple times where it was like, oh no, he’s messed it up or he’s hesitated too long or whatever. He was calmer than we were behind and was measuring things just perfectly and bringing things back just when he needed to. He was actually playing the game perfectly which was impressive to watch.