Stage 17: Tour de France Summary

Stage 17 of the Tour de France was flat. It was just about the last chance for the sprinters. There was a long breakaway, as this type of stage often produces. There were four members of the breakaway: Vincenzo Albanese, Quentin Pacher, Mathieu Burgaudeau, and Jonas Abrahamsen. The peloton went relatively slowly as they were saving themselves for tomorrow’s stage, where there are three beyond-category climbs. Are you still watching the Tour? 

Stage 17 Summary

In stage 17, the big story was that the wearer of the green jersey, Jonathan Milan, was repeatedly in trouble and was likely to lose the green jersey. In pursuit of the breakaway, near the first climb of the day, there was a split in the peloton (due to the high pace of the chase of the breakaway). That was the big news of the stage, that and the sprint at the end of the race, except for Paris, of course. Milan was able to catch back up, setting up a battle for the stage with Tim Merlier.

A subordinate story was that it was raining. That made it very dangerous with the traffic on the course. The winner of stage 17 was Milan. Jordi Meeus finished second. Tobias Lund Andresen finished third. Arnaud De Lie was fourth. Davide Ballerini was fifth.  There was a huge crash about 500 meters from the finish line. Many sprinters were involved in the crash. Since the crash occurred within 5 kilometers of the finish line, all the riders in the crash got the same time as the finishers. The crash occurred near the front of the peloton, which meant riders were delayed.

There was no change in the overall classification following stage 17, as it was a day for the sprinters. The leaders in the overall classification stayed out of the fray in stage 17. Pogacar stayed in first, Vingegaard was in second place, 4:15 back. Florian Lipowitz stayed in third on this stage, 9:03 back. Oscar Onley stayed in fourth place, 11:04 back. Primoz Roglic stayed in fifth place, 11:42 back. Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin was still in sixth place, 13:20 seconds back. It will be interesting to see if he makes a Paris podium push.

3 Beyond Category Climbs Tomorrow

In stage 17 today, the riders seemed to take it easy in preparation for the multi-climb torture on stage 18. There are three beyond categorization mountain climbs on the stage. It is a punishing 171.5 km Alpine journey from Vif to Courchevel’s legendary Col de la Loze. Scheduled for Thursday, July 24, this is where general classification dreams are either realized or wrecked. If Vinegagaard is going to attack Pogachar, this is the place.

The Col du Glandon is the first beyond-category climb tomorrow. It is 23 kilometers long and it averages a 5.1% gradient, with a maximum gradient of 10.0%. Expect several riders to get dropped from the peloton in this stage. Generally, the sprinters are a bit bigger and designed for flat courses, not mountain stages.

The second beyond-category climb is the climb of Col de la Madeleine. It is 19.9 kilometers long. Its average gradient is 7.7% and its maximum gradient is 11%. Expect Team UAE to be leading on this mountain; they have been the best this year. It is nuts that the riders have to do this climb after climbing the Col du Glandon.

The third beyond-category climb of the day is the climb of Col de la Loze. The climb is 28.1 kilometers long. It has an average gradient of 6.3% and a whopping maximum gradient of 20%. The stage ends here, with an uphill finish. Every time the riders go up a mountain, except when there is an uphill finish like this one, the riders must go down the mountain, or descend. This is a high-paced and death-defying technical challenge.

Conclusion

With 6 miles left on the stage, Jonas Abrahamsen rode away from the breakaway, hoping to win the stage. It was commented upon that he is a Norwegian Beast. However, he was caught around the 4km banner. The stage 17 winner was Milan. He had a difficult ride, falling off the back at times in this stage, but was able to come back for the win.

Tomorrow will be the last. It will have three big climbs and an uphill finish. Stage 18, from Vif to the Col de la Loze, is a grueling 171.5-kilometer test where we could see some competition in the General Classification.  This represents the last chance for Vingegaard to attack Pogacar.