Richard Carapaz won the queen stage of the 2026 Tour de France, soloing to victory on Alpe d'Huez after a brutal day in the mountains and a dramatic late crash by his closest rival. It was the Ecuadorian's second stage win in three days, and it sealed the polka-dot mountains classification he had defended all week.

Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) went up the road early, part of a 14-rider breakaway that formed on the first of four enormous climbs across the 170.9km route. Stage 20 may be the hardest in Tour history, packing roughly 5,600 metres of climbing into a single day and, for the first time, placing a second Alpe d'Huez finish on the penultimate stage. This time the race reached the resort not by its famous 21 hairpins but over the irregular Col de Sarenne.

The stage turned on the final climb. Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked with around 17km to go and looked the strongest, but as the leaders dropped into Alpe d'Huez he crashed twice in the closing kilometres, once in a tunnel and again on a descent where a safety net spared him a heavier fall. Largely unhurt, Kuss recovered to take second. Remco Evenepoel came through for third at 26 seconds.

Behind them, the general classification barely moved. Race leader Tadej Pogacar spent the day working for UAE Team Emirates teammate Isaac del Toro, who held on to the final podium place behind Pogacar and Evenepoel. Fourth on the stage was enough for Pogacar to all but confirm a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title.

Only the shortened final stage into Paris remains. Barring disaster, Pogacar will roll into the capital in yellow, while Carapaz heads there with a stage win and the mountains crown already in hand.

Tadej Pogacar produced one of the rides of the 2026 Tour de France on Friday, storming up the 21 hairpins of Alpe d'Huez to win stage 19 and tighten his grip on the yellow jersey to the point of near certainty.

On the 128km run from Gap, a large breakaway built a lead of more than three minutes before the race reached the foot of the legendary climb. It did not matter. Pogacar attacked out of the general classification group in the opening bends, went clear with no one able to follow, and steadily reeled in the survivors of the move. He passed Sepp Kuss, then caught Lenny Martinez and Richard Carapaz, before riding away in the final kilometres for his fifth stage win of this Tour and the 27th of his career.

Martinez took second and Carapaz, the stage 18 winner, third. The manner of the victory was as striking as the result: Pogacar covered the 13.8km ascent in 35 minutes and 27 seconds, erasing Marco Pantani's long-standing benchmark by more than two minutes. It was the men's Tour's first return to Alpe d'Huez since 2022.

The damage to his rivals was heavy. Pogacar now leads Remco Evenepoel, again the best of the rest, by 7:11, having turned a four-and-a-half-minute cushion into a chasm with a single attack. Isaac del Toro, Paul Seixas and Mattias Skjelmose remain locked in the fight for the lower podium places, while Juan Ayuso and Tom Pidcock both cracked early and lost significant time.

The drama is not over. For the first time, the Tour finishes on Alpe d'Huez on consecutive days, and the peloton climbs it again on Saturday's stage 20 after crossing the Col du Galibier.

Linda Noskova completed one of the most unexpected runs in recent Wimbledon memory on Saturday, beating fellow Czech Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Centre Court to win the women's singles title and claim her first Grand Slam crown at just 21 years old.

Noskova was the sharper player through a one-sided opening set, breaking early and racing away with it in under half an hour. Muchova, playing in her first Wimbledon final, steadied herself in the second, matched Noskova from the baseline and took the set 7-5 to force a decider. The third set turned on the finest of margins: Muchova saved five match points, twice dragging Noskova back from the brink, before the younger woman held her nerve and sealed it 6-3.

The result extends one of the sport's most remarkable streaks. Noskova becomes the tenth different women's champion at Wimbledon in as many years, an era of parity with no dominant figure at the top of the women's game. She is also the youngest Wimbledon women's singles champion since Petra Kvitova lifted the trophy in 2011, and the first Czech to win the title since Kvitova's second in 2014.

For an all-Czech final to close the fortnight is its own milestone, a reflection of the depth the country has built across the women's tour. Muchova, long admired for her all-court game but repeatedly slowed by injury, leaves with the runner-up trophy and a run that reaffirms her standing among the elite.

Noskova, seeded but far from favored two weeks ago, walks away with the biggest title of her career and a place near the top of the game. On this evidence, it will not be her last deep run at a major.

The 2026 Farnborough International Airshow wound down its trade days with Boeing narrowly out in front of Airbus, closing a subdued edition that showed how far the industry's focus has shifted from headline orders toward fixing production.

By Reuters' tally, Boeing logged 173 firm and provisional orders to Airbus's 154, a combined 327 aircraft. Stripping out deals already sitting in the manufacturers' books before a buyer was named, including Boeing's share of one large lessor commitment, the genuinely new total falls to about 218 jets. Across the four trade days, the trade body ADS put the value of all announced deals at roughly $84.7bn.

One customer did most of the heavy lifting. Lessor SMBC Aviation Capital opened the week with a 200-jet order split evenly between the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320neo family, a single deal that accounted for more than 60 percent of the firm orders booked all week. Widebody commitments from Riyadh Air and Philippine Airlines, an AerCap order for 15 Boeing 787-9s and Abra Group's first Embraer deal rounded out a thinner than usual board.

Engine makers, tellingly, were busier than the airframers. Manufacturers logged more than 900 firm engine orders, led by a record CFM International commitment for over 1,000 LEAP-1A engines tied to jets already sold.

The 327 total edged past the 2024 show but landed nowhere near the 800 aircraft some analysts had floated, and far below the 2018 peak of 1,109. With order books already stretching into the next decade, the modest count was widely expected.

"I didn't have high expectations of big commercial orders at the show ... because a lot of large orders are already out there," airline analyst John Strickland said.

Richard Carapaz soloed to victory on stage 18 of the Tour de France on Thursday, the Ecuadorian timing a late attack to perfection on the summit finish at Orcières-Merlette to claim his second career Tour stage win.

It was the first mountain stage of the 2026 race to be won from the breakaway, and it took some earning. Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG kept the front of the peloton tight on the long opening climb, and it was nearly 70km before a move finally got clear on a stage many had expected the yellow-jersey group to control.

Once the break was established, the finale turned tactical. Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) launched inside the final 3km of the 7.1km ascent. Valentin Paret-Peintre went with him, and Mauro Schmid and Matteo Jorgenson clawed their way back, but Carapaz simply attacked again. This time no one could follow, and the former Giro d'Italia winner stretched his lead on every switchback to cross the line alone.

Schmid pips Jorgenson for second

Behind the winner, Schmid edged Jorgenson in the sprint for the runner-up spot, with Paret-Peintre distanced on the closing ramps. The victory lifted Carapaz from 12th to 10th overall after he gained 4:35 on the general-classification group.

Pogačar stays in yellow

There was no change at the top of the standings. Pogačar retains the race lead with a 4:32 advantage over Remco Evenepoel, though UAE lost a key mountain helper when Brandon McNulty abandoned with illness. The result leaves the overall battle poised as the Tour heads into back-to-back summit finishes on Alpe d'Huez, the decisive stages of the final week.

The 73rd EAA AirVenture Oshkosh handed its Boeing Plaza to the future of flight on Tuesday, staging what the Experimental Aircraft Association billed as its most ambitious showcase yet of electric aircraft, eVTOL platforms and autonomous drones.

The July 21 innovations program read like a roll call of advanced air mobility. BETA Technologies, Bye Aerospace, Jetson, American Drone, MagniX, Zipline, Merlin Labs, Airhart Aeronautics and Amazon's delivery unit all brought hardware to Wittman Regional Airport, with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University rounding out the ground displays. For the first time, several competing electric platforms — Bye Aerospace, Jetson, BETA, American Drone and ScaleWings — were slated to fly together in the afternoon air show.

"The collection of innovations taking the stage on Tuesday represent just part of where aviation is headed," said Rick Larsen, EAA's vice president of communities and member programs.

Spectacle ahead of certification

The subtext is the gap between the display and the market. Oshkosh has assembled arguably the largest single gathering of electric and hybrid aircraft ever seen, yet not one of them can be bought or flown in commercial passenger service today. Most remain in flight testing or working through type certification with the FAA, whose inaugural eVTOL Integration Pilot Program missions were flown only earlier this month.

For a convention that draws more than 700,000 visitors and over 10,000 aircraft across the week, the emerging-technology day has become a fixture rather than a novelty — a public progress report on an industry that has burned through billions in investment without yet putting a fare-paying passenger in an electric cabin. The Twilight Flight Fest, headlined by drone-delivery firm Wing, closes the day.

AirVenture 2026 runs through Sunday at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Jasper Philipsen won stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday, taking a chaotic sprint out of a large breakaway into Voiron for his first stage victory of the 2026 race.

The Alpecin-Premier Tech sprinter was led to the line by his teammate Mathieu van der Poel and held off Mauro Schmid of Jayco-AlUla and Olav Kooij of Decathlon CMA CGM on the 174.7km run from Chambery. It was an emotional win for the Belgian after a difficult opening fortnight. "I was in the shape of my life, and the first 12 days were just horrible," he said, crediting his team for continuing to believe in him.

A frantic breakaway day

The stage was billed as the sprinters' last realistic chance before the Alps, and it was hard-fought from the flag. Green jersey holder Mads Pedersen rode aggressively, chasing down escape attempts and winning the intermediate sprint to defend his lead in the points classification. A crash in the mayhem briefly brought down general classification riders Tom Pidcock and Lenny Martinez, though both remounted quickly.

In the finale, former Milan-San Remo winner Jasper Stuyven launched a solo bid for a first Tour stage win in ten appearances, but the chasing sprinters' teams reeled him in inside the closing kilometres, setting up the reduced sprint that Philipsen took.

Pogacar stays in yellow

There was little movement at the top of the general classification. Tadej Pogacar finished safely in the peloton and holds the yellow jersey with a 4:32 advantage over Remco Evenepoel. Isaac del Toro sits third, 30 seconds clear of Paul Seixas in the battle for the white jersey of best young rider, while Pedersen keeps green even as Philipsen closed the gap with his win.

The race now turns to its decisive final week, with back-to-back summit finishes on Alpe d'Huez and a closing stage in Paris that takes in the climbs of Montmartre.

The Esports World Cup 2026 has moved into its third week at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, and the Club Championship standings have taken an unfamiliar shape: Natus Vincere lead the race, while the event's back-to-back defending champions sit well down the table.

NAVI head the ranking on 1,750 points, ahead of Team Vitality on 1,400 and AG.AL International on 1,100, with a cluster of clubs, 100 Thieves and Dplus among them, tied on 1,000. The Club Championship rewards consistency across the festival's two dozen games rather than any single result, and the rules are strict: no club can win it without lifting at least one Esports World Cup trophy.

The real story near the top is who is absent from it. Team Falcons, the Saudi organisation that won the inaugural 2024 Club Championship and defended the title in 2025, are 14th on 600 points. Four of the club's five competing rosters have put points on the board, but none has yet mounted a decisive run at a trophy.

A first edition away from Riyadh

This is the first Esports World Cup staged outside Saudi Arabia. Organisers moved the event to Paris in May, citing regional security after months of conflict in the Middle East, and framed the switch as a one-year rotation rather than a permanent exit. The scale is otherwise intact: more than 2,000 players and 200 clubs from over 100 countries, competing across 25 tournaments for a record $75 million prize pool. Of that, $30 million is reserved for the Club Championship, with $7 million going to the winning club.

The festival runs through 23 August, and the largest points hauls are still to come. The table will change many times before a champion is crowned, but for now the balance of power has tilted away from the event's founding dynasty.

Remco Evenepoel won stage 16 of the Tour de France on Tuesday, covering the 26.1km individual time trial from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains in 32:19 and taking back-to-back stage victories in the process.

The Belgian, riding for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, put 28 seconds into race leader Tadej Pogačar, who finished second on the stage. It was a rare afternoon in this Tour where the yellow jersey was comprehensively beaten rather than merely matched, and it cut into an overall lead that had looked close to unassailable a day earlier.

Pogačar keeps the race lead and Evenepoel now sits second overall, but the margin between them is smaller heading into the closing week. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had spent the previous stages extending his advantage, and stage 16 marks the first meaningful reversal of that trend.

A specialist on his own terrain

The result was, on paper, the least surprising of the race. Evenepoel is the reigning time trial world champion, and a flat 26.1km run along Lake Geneva is precisely the profile that suits him: sustained power, minimal climbing, and no tactics to hide behind. Against the clock there is nowhere for a rider to shelter, and the gaps are an honest measure of form.

It also continues a striking turn in his race. Evenepoel won stage 15 as well, a stage defined by Jonas Vingegaard crashing out of the Tour, and he now leaves the Alps with two consecutive wins and renewed momentum.

A costly day for the winning team

The afternoon was not wholly good news for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Florian Lipowitz, Evenepoel's team co-leader, abandoned the Tour after a heavy crash during the same time trial. The German's exit removes a second overall contender from the race in as many days, following Vingegaard's departure on stage 15, and leaves the squad celebrating a stage win and absorbing a significant loss on the same afternoon.

The Tour continues through to its finish on 26 July. Pogačar remains the favourite on the strength of his lead and his climbing, but Evenepoel has demonstrated that the deficit is not fixed, and that on the right terrain he can take back time in meaningful quantities.

Boeing had the stronger opening day at the Farnborough International Airshow, even though the show's single biggest customer ended up handing an equal prize to each of the two planemakers. Aircraft lessor SMBC Aviation Capital ordered 100 Boeing 737 MAX jets in the morning, made up of 60 of the larger MAX 10 and 40 MAX 8s, then returned later in the day with a matching order for 100 Airbus A320neo-family aircraft, splitting a 200-jet commitment evenly between the rivals.

Even with that split, Boeing set the pace. Beyond the SMBC narrowbodies, the American manufacturer booked widebody business worth around 48 orders and options for its 787 Dreamliner from Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia's state-backed start-up carrier, and from Philippine Airlines. The Riyadh Air agreement also handed Airbus its clearest win of the day, options on six A350-1000s.

The Philippine Airlines order carried its own significance: Boeing's first from the carrier in roughly two decades, a 787 Dreamliner commitment with deliveries scheduled from the early 2030s. By Bloomberg's count, Boeing gathered close to 150 orders across the opening day.

The flurry came despite muted expectations. In the run-up, the head of Boeing's commercial airplanes unit had played down order announcements, saying the company was focused on lifting production, and analysts had warned that supply-chain bottlenecks would keep the week's total well below the 800-plus aircraft some once forecast. Airbus and Boeing between them had been expected to book only a little over 300 orders.

With the show running through Friday and several campaigns still open, more deals are likely before the week is out. But the opening exchanges went Boeing's way, even as its biggest single customer hedged its bets across both jet families.