German Lennard Kamna produced a superb solo break to power to victory on stage 16 of the Tour de France as Primoz Roglic maintained the overall lead.
Bora-Hansgrohe rider Kamna, 24, pulled away on the penultimate climb of the 164km stage from La Tour-du-Pin to Villard-de-Lans to claim his first Grand Tour stage win.
Roglic finished almost 17 minutes later in a group of the main contenders.
He leads fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogacar by 40 seconds.
Kamna, whose victory also marked his team’s first success at the Tour, finished one minute 27 seconds ahead of Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz in second, while Swiss Sebastien Reichenbach took third place.
“I’m feeling great,” said Kamna, who finished second to Colombia’s Daniel Martinez on stage 13. “It’s an absolutely awesome day for me.
“It was a fight from the beginning on and I knew I had to make it to the finish alone. When I saw Carapaz upping the speed I thought, ‘now is the moment to go’ – and I just went all in to the end.
“It’s a big, big, big relief for the team and for me. I can almost not imagine it. The step I made this year is huge and I’m so pleased to win.”
It was another disappointing day for defending champion Egan Bernal, who cracked on the Grand Colombier in Sunday’s 15th stage.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider finished alongside the sprinters more than 27 minutes down on Kamna and about 10 minutes inside the time limit.
Earlier on Tuesday, all 22 teams were cleared to start the stage after the entire ‘race bubble’ of 785 riders, team staff and officials came out negative for coronavirus in the latest round of testing.
French health authorities and organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) had said that if two members of a team, riders or staff, tested positive for coronavirus, the whole team would be excluded from the race.
Backroom staff from Ineos Grenadiers, Mitchelton-Scott, Cofidis and AG2R-La Mondiale, as well as race director Christian Prudhomme, had tested positive prior to stage 10.
On Wednesday, the Tour takes in a brutal 170km mountain route from Grenoble to Meribel Col de la Loze, in a day that is likely to ignite the general classification race.
Stage 16 result
1. Lennard Kamna (Ger/Bora-Hansgrohe) 4hrs 12mins 52secs
2. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/Ineos Grenadiers) +1mins 27secs
3. Sebastien Reichenbach (Swi/Groupama-FDJ) +1mins 56secs
4. Pavel Sivakov (Rus/Ineos Grenadiers) +2mins 34secs
5. Simon Geschke (Ger/CCC) +2mins 35secs
6. Warren Barguil (Fra/Arkea Samsic) +2mins 37secs
7. Tiesj Benoot (Bel/Sunweb) +2mins 41secs
8. Nicolas Roche (Ire/Sun) +2mins 47secs
9. Qunetin Pacher (Fra/B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) +2mins 51 secs
10. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra/Deceuninck-Quick-Step +2mins 54 secs
General classification after stage 16
1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) 70hrs 6mins 47secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +40secs
3. Rigoberto Uran (Col/EF Pro Cycling) +1mins 34secs
4. Miguel Angel Lopez (Col/Astana) +1mins 45secs
5. Adam Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +2mins 03secs
6. Richie Porte (Aus/Trek-Segafredo) +2mins 13secs
7. Mikel Landa (Spa/Bahrain McLaren) +2mins 16secs
8. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +3mins 15secs
9. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) +5mins 19secs
10. Nairo Quintana (Col/Arkea-Samsic) +5mins 43secs
