Ecuador's Richard Carapaz won stage 17 of the Tour de France after the remnants of a breakaway finished ahead of the main pretenders in the High Alps on Wednesday.

EF rider Carapaz dropped Simon Yates and soloed the final 10km to win his first ever Tour de France stage after finishing third overall in 2021.

The former Giro d'Italia champion, who won the Tokyo Olympics road race, also wore the overall leader's yellow jersey after his efforts in the second stage to Bologna.

Overall leader Tadej Pogacar, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel kept their powder dry until late in the medium mountain run.

The trio then produced an entertaining scrap with third-placed Evenepoel finishing 12sec ahead of Pogacar, with Vingegaard losing two seconds to the leader. (AFP)