On some days at the Tour de France everything happens — today was one of those stages. Time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel outsprinted Tadej Pogačar to take his first ever road stage win at the Tour, just an hour after two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard had crashed out on a bend as the GC contenders raced towards the Plateau de Solaison.Meanwhile, sprinter Tim Merlier, winner of three stages earlier in the race, also abandoned — a team source telling The Athletic that the Belgian was “empty”.There was carnage throughout the peloton — as Paul Seixas’ time in the white jersey, for now, lasted just one day as Pogačar paced his teammate Isaac Del Toro up the final climb and on to the podium.Earlier, US champion Quinn Simmons and Tom Pidcock once again animated the race, the key protagonists of a breakaway that was only reeled in on the final, brutal slopes of the Plateau de Solaison.Jacob Whitehead and Duncan Alexander break down the key moments from a seismic day.Evenepoel held Pogačar off in a sprint finish to win at Plateau de Solaison (Loic VENANCE / AFP via Getty Images)Evenepoel gets the Tour de France road stage victory he’s cravedRemco Evenepoel called it.“The final climb should suit me,” the Belgian said pre-stage. “Forty minutes of nearly constant uphill at 8 or 9 percent. I’ve done it several times during my training camp.“Today, I’ll give it everything one last time, and on Tuesday I’ll try to make up lost ground and fight for the stage win.”Evenepoel has won two stages of the Tour de France before, both time trials, but this, his first mountain stage win, is arguably his finest.Entering the race as co-leader with Florian Lipowitz, Evenepoel is now now second on GC, exactly five minutes behind Pogačar, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s leadership is now clear.Evenepoel’s emotions are clear after such a major win (Guillaume Horcajuelo / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)Evenepoel was strong enough to stay with Pogačar’s pacing on the higher slopes of the Plateau de Solaison, his podium rivals Juan Ayuso, Paul Seixas, and Florian Lipowitz dropped with 7km to the finish.Pogačar then appeared to drop his pace, seemingly wanting to pace teammate Del Toro to the podium, rather than dropping him with his own attack. Del Toro attacked twice in the closing kilometres, Evenepoel closing the gap easily both times, before holding off Pogačar in the final all-out sprint.