By Vincent DaheronOrcieres Merlette — Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz launched a decisive attack during the final climb to Orcieres-Merlette to secure a solo victory in stage 18 of the Tour de France on Thursday. The EF Education-EasyPost rider spread his arms in celebration as he crossed the finish line 45 seconds before second-placed Mauro Schmid, while Matteo Jorgenson came in third.Overall leader Tadej Pogacar and other general classification contenders did not challenge for the stage and finished more than 4min later. The Slovenian retained his lead of 4min 32sec over his nearest rival, Remco Evenepoel.Carapaz, with the ninth Grand Tour stage win of his career, rose to 10th position overall.The riders started fast despite the mountainous terrain testing them in the 185.2km ride from Voiron, covering 42.5km in the first hour.Points classification leader Mads Pedersen, whose advantage was cut down to just seven points after Jasper Philipsen won stage 17, consolidated his position as he joined an early breakaway group, eyeing the intermediate sprint.No one challenged the Danish green jersey holder as he launched a late attack to win the sprint, increasing his lead over Philipsen to 32 points, before dropping back. The top 10 riders in the general classification were, meanwhile, sitting comfortably in the peloton, unperturbed as they fell more than 8min behind the leaders with 30km to go.The peloton started to pick up the pace as they neared the climb to Cote de Saint-Leger-les-Melezes, while the six-man leading group, including Jorgenson, Carapaz and French climber Valentin Paret-Peintre, sped up to keep the chasers at bay.During the final ascent to Orcieres-Merlette, Carapaz broke away from the group with 3.5km left in the stage. The others failed to keep up as the 33-year-old built a lead of 37sec going into the final kilometre, ensuring a comfortable victory.