Australian Kaden Groves completed his set of grand tour stage wins when he prevailed on the Tour de France's penultimate ride, avoiding a crash on slippery roads before powering to a solo triumph on the 114.5-mile journey from Nantua on Saturday.
Groves' bike-handling skills were on display when he managed to stay up as Spain's Ivan Romeo and France's Romain Gregoire skidded out of control in front of him on a wet descent 13 miles from the finish.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider then attacked from a reduced breakaway bunch and never looked back in the remaining 10-plus miles, bursting into tears in a mix of disbelief and exhaustion after the line.
Groves, who gave his team its third victory in this year's Tour after Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel also won, has seven Vuelta and two Giro d'Italia stage wins.
The 26-year-old, who is used to winning from bunch sprints, was beaming with pride after a memorable ride.
"There's so much pressure at the Tour, and having won in the Giro, having won in the Vuelta, all I ever get asked is am I good enough to win in the Tour? And now I show them," Groves said. "It's my first time winning, so it's pretty incredible."
Dutchman Frank van den Broek took second place, 54 seconds behind, with his compatriot Pascal Eenkhoorn third, five seconds further back.
Defending champion Tadej Pogačar spent a quiet day in the main peloton and took another step toward a fourth Tour title as he retained his overall leader's yellow jersey with a 4:24 advantage over Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard and will celebrate victory if he avoids crashing Sunday.
"I am more or less sure of my overall victory, but I still don't want to say anything about it. I want to stay focused until I have crossed the finish line in Paris," Pogačar said. "That's one of the most beautiful parts of this sport. We are 180 guys who spend weeks riding in the mountains, and in the end, all of a sudden, we come to the streets of one of the biggest cities in the world."
The final stage is an 82.2-mile ride from Mantes-la-Jolie to Paris, where the peloton will cycle up the famous Butte Montmartre three times before the final laps on the Champs-Élysées.
"I am unsure of how the final stage will pan out," Pogačar said. "The course is relatively short, and that will make for a rather punchy effort."
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.