Michal Kwiatkowski claimed the first Grand Tour stage win of his career in unique circumstances on Stage 18 of the Tour de France, crossing the line arm in arm with INEOS Grenadiers team-mate Richard Carapaz after the pair dominated the day’s breakaway.

There was a possibility of an intra-team sprint finish when the duo dropped all of their fellow escapees and descended off the final climb with an unassailable advantage over the next group on the road, but instead Carapaz let Kwiatkowski take the honours on a memorable day for the British squad.

The overall contenders followed just under two minutes later, the only significant change in the general classification being Mikel Landa (Team Bahrain-McLaren) moving up to fifth after Adam Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) and Rigoberto Uran (EF Pro Cycling) were both distanced earlier on the stage.

It means Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) continues to lead Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) by 57 seconds with just Stage 19’s rolling route and Stage 20’s time trial remaining.

Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Pro Team) is 1min 27sec back in third, having lost one second to Roglic and Pogacar in the sprint for the line.

Carapaz’s day in the breakaway saw him replace Pogacar at the top of the mountains classification, while Sam Bennett (Deceuninck – Quick-Step) extended his lead of the points classification by winning the day’s intermediate sprint.