Carapaz eyes Tour title after Suisse win

On form Ecuadorian holds on in tight final stage of Swiss tour

- Vern Pitt, Owen Rogers, Richard Abraham

Ineos Grenadiers boss Dave Brailsford will have been given great joy but also some headaches about who will lead his team at the Tour de France as Richard Carapaz sealed overall victory at the Tour de Suisse.

Carapaz resisted all attempts to dislodge him from the top of the standings to seal victory on Sunday. The Ineos Grenadier was left with only one team-mate three kilometres before the top of the final climb, but fought off his challengers to take the win, 17 seconds ahead of Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo).

Carapaz had propelled himself into the lead on stage five when he showed himself to be the fastest on the climb to Leukerbad. But his 26-second advantage over second-placed Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) had been slashed on the race’s penultimate day thanks to a blistering time trial performance by Urán, who jumped up the standings to second just 17 seconds behind Carapaz, capturing the stage win in the process.