Stage 17 report: The Austrian rider Felix Gall won stage 17 after the race leader Jonas Vingegaard increased his overall lead on Tadej Pogacar to seven minutes and 35 seconds with another display of power on the Tour’s highest ascent, the 2,304-metre climb of the Col de la Loze. Jeremy Whittle reports from Courchevel …
King of the Mountains: Giulio Ciccone has just finished the stage 24 minutes down but did enough to keep the polka-dot jersey on his back. He has 88 points and is six clear of Felix Gall. Jonas Vingegaard is third in that particular classification on 81 points.
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Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 67hr 57min 51sec
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Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) +7min 35sec
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Adam Yates (UAE Emirates) +10min 45sec
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Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +12min 01sec
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Simon Yates (Jayco-Ulula) +12min 19sec
Pello Bilbao, Jai Hindley, Felix Gall, Sepp Kuss and David Gaudu make up the top 10.
Tadej Pogacar: The Slovenian limps over the line 7min 37sec behind the stage winner. He remains in second place on GC but is 7min 35sec behind Jonas Vingegaard.
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Felix Gall (AG2R-Citreon) 4hr 49min 08sec
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Simon Yates (Jayco-UlUla) +34sec
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Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) +1min 38sec
Jonas Vingegaard: Simon Yates finishes second in the stage, Pello Bilbao comes third and the race leader crosses the finish line in fourth, having effectively rubber-stamped his victory in this Tour.
The Austrian AG2R-Citreon rider hits the final ramp well clear of Simon Yates, struggles up its 18% gradient and crosses the line. He raises an arm in salute as he crosses the line.
1km to go: Pogacar crests the top of the final climb over five minutes behind Vingegaard.
1.5km to go: Gall negotiates the short kicker then begins his final descent. The gap back to Yates is 14 seconds and we could be in for a sprint finish on the final ramp to the line.
4km to go: Felix Gall is on another hair-raising descent with Simon Yates hot on his heels, 16 seconds back. There’s another short kick-up in about a kilometre’s time followed by more descent and then the killer ramp up to the finish.
6km to go: Felix Gall leads Simon Yates by 20 seconds, with crowds lining each side of the narrow road, many of whom are hammered on a heady mixture of booze, high altitude and sunshine.
7km to go: Vingegaard is now on his own, picking off the stragglers from the original lead group one by one. He’s 1min 34sec behind Felix Gall.
7.5km to go: Pogacar is now almost four minutes behind Vingegaard. At the front of the race, Felix Gall is beginning his descent before the stiff ramp up to the finish with its gradient of over 20%.
8km to go: A race car gets caught up in human traffic at the apex of a corner near the top of the climb and Jonas Vingegaard and Wilco Kelderman are forced to stop behind it, more or less walk around it and then set off on their way again, getting push-offs from members of the crowd. This is bonkers!
8km to go: Felix Gall crests the top of the climb 19 seconds clear of Simon Yaters. Behind him, the crowds are misbehaving and one fan gets a left-hook from Pello Bilbao.
9km to go: “I’m gone, I’m dead,” says Tadej Pogacar on his race radio. His team boss orders Marc Soler to stay with the Slovenian and instructs Adam Yates to “fight for the podium”.
9.6km to go: Vingegaard latches on to the back wheel of his teammate Wilco Kelderman as the gap between himself and Pogacar goes out to 2min 30sec. It’s only going to get bigger.
10km to go: Riding at 1,900m above sea level and rising, Pogacar looks a completely beaten docket compared to the man in front of him on the GC. Pogacar is pedalling squares as he tries to stay on Marc Soler’s wheel, while Vingegaard is flying up a steeper section of the climb on his own and has just whizzed past Guillaume Martin.
11km to go: At the front of the race, Felix Gall leads Simon Yates by 20 seconds but the AG2R-Citreon rider looks like he’s struggling. Jonas Vingegaard has set off on his own in search of the leaders and has a lead of 90 seconds and counting over Pogacar.
11km to go: Tadaj Pogacar has lost a minute on the yellow jersey group but is continuing to plug away, trying to minimise his losses. Having dropped out of the lead group, Tiejs Benoot is now pacing Jonas Vingegaard up the climb.
12km to go: Felix Gall pulls clear of what’s left of the lead group, opening a gap of 16 seconds. Chris Harper, Simon Yates and Rafal Majka are travelling together 20 seconds behind him.
13km to go: David Gaudau has been dropped from the lead group, until such time as I discover he hasn’t been. Pello Bilbao is also gone.
13km to go: Pogacar is dropped with seven kilometres of the final climb to go. Jumbo-Visma rider Sepp Kuss takes up position at the front of the yellow jersey group to pile on the pain.
14km to go: In second place on GC, the Slovenian has been dropped by the yellow jersey group and is being paced along by his teammate Marc Soler.
15km to go: The lead group is down to 12 riders with the gap to the yellow jersey group at 2min 30sec. Chris Harper takes up the running in the lead group, ramping up the pace and pressure in a bid to set his teammate Simon Yates up for the stage win.
16km to go: The leaders are now on the part of the climb with a similar profile and gradient to the alarming spike in NHS waiting lists under the Tory goverment over the past four years. And to think some people insist we should keep politics out of sport …
18km to go: It’s 11.7km to the top of the Col de la Loze, at which point the riders have a couple of descents before a stiff ramp up to the finish line. Bahrain Victorious’s Australian rider Jack Haig is dropped from the lead group.
19km to go: The green jersey group, seeing as you asked so nicely, is over 20 minutes behind the leaders: 20min 49sec, to be more precise.
20km to go: The gap from the leaders to the yellow jersey group is at 2min 30sec and the winner of this stage could come from either set of riders.
22km to go: There’s a bit of undulating up-and-down for the riders to negotiate before they board the Pain Train for the preposterously steep second half of this climb.
24km to go: In the lead group, Jumbo-Visma rider Tiesj Benoot drops back to the team car and collects an extremely “sticky bottle” and some snacks, which also take some time to hand over.
25km to go: UAE Emirates rider Rafal Majka, a teammate of Tadej Pogacar, is in the breakaway group, despite failing to make my list two posts ago.
26km to go: Matt Dinham is dropped from the breakaway group.
28km to go: Giuliu Ciccone is dropped from the back of the yellow jersey group and won’t be accumulating any more KOM points today. The lead group is down to 16 riders, with some riding for stage glory and others acting as “satellite riders” who might be able to give their team leaders in the yellow jersey group a bit of support should the need arise further up the climb.
Your leaders: Thibaut Pinot, Matthew Dinham, Nick Schultz, Chris Harper, Pello Bilbao, Guillaume Martin, Simon Yates, Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman, David Gaudu, Valetin Madouas, Jack Haig, Felix Gall and Ben O’Connor.
32km to go: “Im pretty sure I broadly understand what is meant by ‘a very technical descent’ but would appreciate a brief explanation of what it means in specific terms,” writes Karl Winterstein.
Well Karl, I suspect I broadly understand in the same you do, in so far as a technical descent is one that involves lots of corners and tight bends, often of the hairpin variety. Add narrow roads and rain, and we’re left with a descent that requires elite bike-handling skills if one is to negotiate it at speed without coming a cropper. Even then, you are relying to a large extent on blind luck, hoping that you won’t suffer a mechanical, or have a wheel slide out from under you, or come into contact with a rival who isn’t concentrating as much as they should be.
32km to go: The lead group has been reduced to 19 riders, with Rigoberto Uran and Julian Alaphilippe among those who have been shelled out the back. The gap back to the yellow jersy group is 2min 47sec.
33km to go: Giulio Ciccone is dropped by the lead group as they begin their ascent of the Col de La Loz. This is going to hurt.
34km to go: The final climb of the day doesn’t “officially” begin for another kilometre but the riders are already going uphill. The hors category Col de la Loze is 2,304m high and 28.1 kilometres in length with an average gradient of 6%.
34km to go: His work done for the day, Matteo Trentin (UAE Emirates) is dropped by the yellow jersey group. He salutes the TV audience as he’s overtaken by a Tour motorbike.
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Tour de France: Gall grinds to stage 17 win as Vingegaard opens up gulf at top - The Guardian
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