The Olympic champion from Ecuador confirmed his final victory in the Tour’s climbers’ competition with another heroic performance off the front of France’s great race. After wearing the yellow jersey early in the Tour and winning stage 17, Richie will pull on the famous polka dot jersey tomorrow on the final Tour de France podium, thanks to a gritty performance driven by his teammates on today’s final road stage through the Alps.

Stage 20 took the Tour de France from Nice’s Old Port down the Promenade des Anglais and straight into the mountains, with the Col de Braus, Col de Turini, and Col de la Colmiane on course before the final climb up to the finish at the summit of the Col de la Couillole.

With points on offer for the first riders to cross the tops of each of the mountains, Richie had to get ahead of the race to solidify his lead in the competition. As soon as the peloton hit the base of the first climb, Neilson Powless did a huge turn for Richie to get him into the breakaway and pull it away from the peloton.

Once the group was away, Richie bided his time, knowing he had to manage his effort across the whole distance of the stage. If the group could hit the last mountain with enough of an advantage he wanted to have a go for the stage win.

He crossed the summit of the Col de Turini in first place on the road and then did the same on the Col de la Colmiane; the polka-dot jersey was his. With his victory in the King of the Mountains competition sewn up, Richie focused on the Col de la Couillole.

The yellow jersey group was chasing hard behind them. The breakaway hit the base of the final climb with two-and-a-half minutes’ advantage. Richie answered the first attacks and then put in his own dig. Only one rider could go with his explosive effort. The two traded turns up the climb, trying heroically to hold off their chasers. When the yellow jersey group got to within a few seconds, Richie launched again, throwing all of his effort into the pedals to try and shake them. When they caught him, he gritted his teeth and jumped on the wheel, only getting dropped by the top two riders in the race when they accelerated in the final kilometer. He finished third on the stage and was rewarded at the finish with the King of the Mountains jersey, which he will wear in the Tour’s final time trial tomorrow and on the final podium in Nice.

The truth is I’m super excited. It was a really, really, really hard day. I had good luck to place myself well and I earned more points and I’m just really happy.

For me, it’s been a Tour that was growing little by little, day by day, and this is the best I’ve felt and it’s ended great. It’s a positive result for me. To bring this wonderful jersey home is the best.

It’s been a pretty tough final week for me. I’ve been fighting a bit of sickness. Yesterday was probably one of the worst days I’ve ever had on a bike. I was really questioning whether to even start today, but I just wanted to try and help Richie with the polka dots if I could. I didn’t know if I would finish frankly, but the body came around a bit. I made it to the line, so hopefully I can have a bit of an easier day tomorrow.

We are 100 percent happy with our Tour de France. If you had told us before the Tour that we’d leave the Tour with these results, we’d have taken that.

Personally, I’m really happy with the level that I’ve reached, barring a bit of sickness in this last week. I’m really happy with what I’ve done.

I feel tired, but I am happy for Richard. He took the jersey. That was super important for us and everyone involved with the team. It was a nice finish as well. We had the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, won a stage, and won the King of the Mountains jersey. It’s amazing. For us, these results are super important. They are the result of the best teamwork, for sure.