Lennard Kamna claimed his first Tour de France victory, when he outwitted Giro d'Italia champion Richard Carapaz to win the 16th stage, a 164-km ride from La Tour du Pin.
The 24-year-old German took advantage of Ecuadorian Carapaz's momentary loss of focus at the top of the last climb of the day to go solo and finished 1m 27s ahead, after charging down in the descent.
Swiss Sebastien Reichenbach took third place, 1m 56s off the pace, as Slovenian Primoz Roglic retained the overall leader's yellow jersey.
Kiwi George Bennett is up to 27th overall, but his role for the next week will be to help protect Roglic's lead in the mountains.
Defending champion Egan Bernal, whose hopes of winning the race fell away when he cracked in Sunday's 15th stage, was dropped from the main bunch in the ascent to Saint-Nizier, suffering from back pains.
Bernal says compensating for his back led to some discomfort in his knee.
"I want to ride to Paris," he adds.
Ineos-Grenadiers had a day to forget, as Carapaz had to settle for second, after two brutal attacks from the breakaway group in the decisive climb had left his rivals in the red.
But Kamna, who narrowly missed out on a stage win last week when he lost a two-man sprint to Colombian Dani Martinez on Puy Mary, went solo just when Carapaz was recovering from his effort at the top.
"I didn't want it to be another two-man sprint, so when I saw Carapaz struggling a bit, I thought I had to go full gas," says Kamna, who had also lost a two-man sprint for victory at the 2017 U23 world championships.
"When I saw that I was gaining a few seconds, it boosted my confidence and I knew I was going to win."
All 22 teams were cleared to continue the race, after all riders and staff members returned negative coronavirus tests during their rest day.
Tuesday also marked the return of Tour director Christian Prudhomme, who had tested positive in the previous round of testing.
The 17th stage is a brutal mountain trek in the French Alps, over 170km and ending in Meribel at the top of the Col de la Loze, 2304 metres above sea level.
Reuters
