Geraint Thomas tightens his grip on yellow
Nairo Quintana won the stage, Geraint Thomas increased his lead on General Classification and Chris Froome is in danger of missing out on a podium place. Sean Ingle reports from Saint-Lary-Soulan.
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Peter Sagan crosses the line ...
The Slovakian Bora Hansrohe rider has crossed the line within the time limit, but was looking very sorry for himself. His cycling kit is ripped to shreds, he’s covered in cuts and looking very green around the gills. Ashen-faced, in my expert medical opinion. He must have had a bad fall, but it’ll to take something particularly grim to prevent him getting on his bike tomorrow.
Still no news on Sagan: I’m fairly sure he hasn’t missed the cut – we’d surely have heard it about it by now. The Slovak mathematically secured the green jersey yesterday, but crashed earlier in today’s stage before getting back on his bike.
The top 10 on General Classification
Geraint Thomas increases his lead and this year’s Tour de France is definitely the Sky rider’s to lose at this late stage.
Stage 17 top 10
The first three home all picked home bonus seconds, with Geraint Thomas bagging four to increase his overall lead to almost two minutes over Tom Dumoulin.
Stage 17 provisional result
1. Nairo Quintana
2. Dan Martin +28sec
3. Geraint Thomas +48sec
4. Primoz Roglic, at +52sec
5. Tom Dumoulin +52sec
- Geraint Thomas retains the yellow jersey.
- Tom Dumoulin moves to second.
- Chris Froome has crossed the line with a deficit of 1min 36sec
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Where is Peter Sagan?
The serial green jersey winner crashed earlier in the stage and unconfirmed reports suggest he is currently over 15 minutes off the pace set by Nairo Quintana. He’s unlikely to miss the cut-off ... but considering the stage is so short, who knows? Stay tuned and I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
Froome finishes: The reigning champion crosses the finish line, accompanied by two team-mates, to a chorus of boos and jeers.
Nairo Quintana wins stage 17!!!
The Colombian is the first ever winner of this brand new stage finish and pedals the final metres being cheered on by fans on either side of the barriers. Dan Martin is second and Geraint Thomas gets up for third. Surely nobody can stop him winning his first Grand Tour now?
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Quintana pedals on: he has less than half a kilometre to go and looks home and hosed. Behind him, Geraint Thomas is having the kitchen sink thrown at him by Tom Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic, but is reacting well to every attack. Chris Froome could lose second place on GC today. He’s in all sorts of bother.
1.6km to go: Dumoulin attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group and Roglic and Thomas go with him. Ahead of them on the road, Nairo Quintana has just one kilometre to go.
1.9km to go: Chris Froome is struggling at the back of the yellow jersey group, but neither Primoz Roglic nor Tom Dumoulin make any effort to riff on his pain.
3km to go: Reader Adrian is unamused by my reference to Skybots earlier in the report. Say what you like about Sky fanboys, but they do have a great sense of humour and fun when anyone derives even the mildest amusement from the tireless automatons who ride for the team they love so much.
“Once again an open negative against Sky,” he says. “No mention of White, Vinarkourav, Valvarde, etc - all convicted drug cheats or the other teams with similar histories,” he what-abouts.
“Even Hinault and other tour winner pointing finger at a mistaken inhaler overdose as against blatant taking performance enhancing drugs. The UCI should hold its head in shame as they against their lack reaction in past Giros when crowds and media stirred up trouble.Used to think that this newspaper was an independent newspaper different to the neo-liberal rags but maybe Im wrong! Let’s have an even recording of events. It’s the same in F1, athletics no wonder are walking away.”
Somebody’s very touchy.
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3.7km to go: Nairo Quintana is still looking good for the stage win with his 26-second lead over Dan Martin.
Dominic White has a good idea: “Expanding on the pepper spraying of all riders bar the top 20,” he says. “Perhaps all riders should start at the same time but be pepper sprayed for a length of time that directly correlates to how many seconds, minutes ... or hours down on GC they are.”
4.7km to go: LottoNL-Jumbo rider Steven Kruijswijk attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group, but it’s a fairly half-hearted effort. Tom Dumoulin is being marked closely by assorted Sky riders.
5km to go: Chris Froome is currently last of the eight riders in the yellow jersey group, a state of affairs which may or may not be significant.
5.5km to go: Romain Bardet is dropped from the yellow jersey group.
6.4km to go: Nairo Quintana drops Rafal Majka as the field head up a climb that zig-zags its way up the mountainside and looks horrifically punishing. In the yellow jersey group, some of the big boys are starting to crack.
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7km to go: The gradient is eight per-cent and they’re over 2,000m above sea level and heading closer and closer to heaven as Nairo Quintana continues to pedal onwards and upwards with Rafal Majka on his wheel. Dan Martin is approximately 18 seconds further back.
7.2km to go: The yellow jersey group is still led by several Sky riders, with Chris Froome a little further back on the wheel of Primoz Roglic.
8.4km to go: Quintana and Majka pass Tangert, who’s had a fine day out in front but ultimately came up short. It’s Colombia v Poland, with Ireland’s Dan Martin 18 seconds behind them. Quintana leads the yellow jersey group by 1min 05sec as they head towards the clouds and thin air at the summit of the Col du Portet.
8.5km to go: Well, I say Quintana is looking good for the stage win, but that depends on how much Dan Martin has in the tank.
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9km to go: Nairo Quintana continues to eat into the lead of Tanel Kangert, while Rafal Majka hangs grimly on to the Colombian’s wheel. Quintana is looking exceptionally good for the stage win.
10km to go: Kangert passes under the 10-kilometre-to-go kite as Nairo Quintana and Rafal Majka drop Alejandro Valverde. Dan Martin is behind him and making ground.
There are nine riders in the yellow jersey group, who are 1min 30sec behind the stage leader: Thomas, Froome, Bernal, Poels (Sky), Roglic, Kruijswijk (Jumbo), Bardet (AG2R), Dumoulin (Sunweb) and Landa (Movistar).
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11km to go: Tangert pedals on with a lead of 1min 11sec over Valverde, Quintana, Rafal Majka, Omar Fraile and Daniel Martínez Poveda. The Estonian leads the yellow jersey group, which has snuffed out Primoz Roglic’s attack, by 1min 39sec.
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12km to go: Tanel Kangert continues to lead by at least 1min 50sec over everyone else, with Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde his closest pursuers.
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An email from Daniel McKeown regarding today’s underwhelming grid start: “Further to Alan Mackie’s excellent teapot suggestion and in light of yesterday’s tomfoolery, I’d like to propose lining up the front 20 on the grid and then pepper-spraying the rest, so the main GC contenders have to slug it out while their teammates are blindly spraying their bidons over their eyes and streaming noses,” he says.
13km to go: Primoz Rogliz attacks off the front of the yellow jersey group and Chris Froome goes with him!!! Behind them, Tom Dumoulin and Romain Bardet will be forced to attack to reel in Froome, which is good news for Geraint Thomas.
13.9km to go: Nairo Quintana rides away from the yellow jersey group, putting nearly 30 seconds into them. He was over four minutes off the pace set by Geraint Thomas this morning, so Sky won’t care a lot about this attack by the Movistar rider.
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14km to go: Dan Martin attacks off the front of the yellow jhersey group and Nairo Quintana follows him in search of the stage win. Behind them, Sky are loving this as they control the yellow jersey group with no sign of any threats from any of the main GC contenders. A question: Will Chris Froome attack Geraint Thomas?
The climb to Col du Portet begins
15km to go: They’re on the final, long and brutal climb to the finish and Julian Alaphilippe has sat up in his saddle, leaving Tanel Kangert out on his own in front. Here’s the final climb of the day for your viewing pleasure.
Peter Sagan has crashed: In the green jersey, the Slovak rider crashed on the last descent but is back on his bike.
17km to go: Alaphilippe and Kangert hit the valley between the final two climbs with a lead of 2min 38sec over the yellow jersey group, who are still descending. Movistar’s Marc Soler is leading that particular charge, with six Sky riders behind them. Luke Rowe has been dropped from that group, while Gianni Moscon is watching at home with his feet up, or possibly ringing around various recruitment agencies to find himself a new job.
22km to go: Julian Alaphilippe and Tanal Kangert are motoring down the descent at breakneck speed, extending the gap to those behind them to over a minute as they do so.
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Result at Col de Val Louron-Azet
1. Julian Alaphilippe: 10
2. Tanel Kanger: 8
At 5sec
3. Kristjian Durasek: 6
At 35sec
4. Alejandro Valverde: 4
5. Dani Martinez: 2
6. Rafal Majka: 1
Yellow jersey group at 2min 10sec
28km to go: Movistar’s Marc Soler is burying himself at the front of the yellow jersey bunch, but if he looks over his shoulder he’ll see a line of Sky-bots queued up behind him. They begin the descent of climb No2, having dropped Pierre Latour and his white jersey before going over the top.
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29km to go: Marc Soler leads the yellow jersey group, presumably trying to tee up an attack for Nairo Quintana or Mikel Landa, who also have Alejandro Valverde further up the road. Valverde goes over the top of the the Col de Val Louron-Azet.
29km to go: Apologies, the gap from the three leaders to the yellow jersey group is 2min 12sec.
32km to go: How things stand: Our leading trio of Tanel Kangert, Julian Alaphilippe and Kristijan Durasek continue to make their way up towards the summit of the second climb with a little over two kilometres to go. Behind them, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Rafa Majkka (Bora Hansgrohe), Daniel Felipe Martínez (EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale), Omar Fraile (Astana) are on the chase trying to close a gap of 48 seconds. The gap between the three leaders and the yellow jersey group, currently being towed along by Movistar’s Marc Soler, who is trying to ramp up the pressure on Sky, is 2min 13sec.
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33km to go: AG2R’s Pierre Latour, in the white jersey for best young rider but tasked with helping Romain Bardet in his quest to win the overall Tour, is putting a massive shift in at the front of a yellow jersey group of 20 or so riders. His job today is to set up Bardet for an attack, possibly jeopardising his own chances of keeping the white jersey in the process. Bardet will have to go soon as his team only have five riders left in the race.
34 km to go: A development in the the yellow jersey group, Romain Bardet’s AG2R La Mondiale team-mates have moved to the front of the peloton and launched something of an attack and were immediately tracked by Primoz Roglic.
Col de Val Louron-Azet
This is the climb the riders are currently tackling. The three stage leaders have 34 kilometres to go.
36km to go: Tanel Kangert, Julian Alaphilippe and Kristijan Durasek are on their way up the day’s second big climb, the Category 1 Col de Val Louron-Azet, having dropped Jesus Herrada. He’s currently in no-man’s land between the three leaders and the 11-man group with Adam Yates, Alejandro Valverde, Bauke Mollema and Nicolas Edet in it. The yellow jersey group has just hit the foot of the second climb and are 3min 37sec behind the three leaders.
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Points at Peyragudes mean prizes!
1. Tanel Kangert: 10
At 15sec
2. Julian Alaphilippe: 8
3. Kristjian Durasek: 6
4. Jesus Herrada: 4
At 1min 05sec
5. Rafal Majka: 2
6. Marc Soler: 1
Peloton at 3min 25sec with Nairo Quintana at the back after two separate delays for the same mechanical.
An email from a reader who does not wish to be named because he is supposed to be working, not following this nonsense: “It strikes me that the problem with the grid isn’t the idea, it’s the execution,” he says. “At 250m back Sky could get their domestiques back up with the leaders almost immediately. If the other riders were, say, 500m or even 1km back then the GC guys would be isolated for a much longer period and some of them may have been tempted to attack from the off.”
46km to go: Tanel Kangert is well into the first descent of the day, with Julian Alaphilippe, Jesus Herrada Lopez and Kristijan Durasek in hot pursuit. Alaphilipe is in full “super-tuck”position, descending at a ridiculous pace, obviously hoping to catch and pass Kangert so he can take maximum King of the Mountains points at the next summit.
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49km to go: Nairo Quintana pulls into the side of the road to get another bike from the support car and is given a push-start by a member of the Movistar backroom staff, who almost gets hit by a following medical support car as he releases the Colombian. I suppose if you’re going to be hit by any moving vehicle, it might as well be a car containing a doctor and a load of medical supplies.
52km to go: Tanel Kangert goes over the top of the Montee de Peyragudes, with the trio of Julian Alaphilippe, Jesus Herrada Lopez and Kristijan Durasek about 25 seconds behind him. Behind them in the yellow jersey group, Movistar’s Nairo Quintana has a mechanical and with no support car in sight, loses his temper as a bike-swap with a team-mate doesn’t go entirely according to plan.
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An email from Alan Mackie: “I’m trying to think of a more useless novelty innovation in sport than that grid start,” he writes. “Those who say it’s a gimmick to bring attention to the sport; wouldn’t it have been more of an innovation to get the riders to all wear a chocolate teapot on their helmets and the rider whose teapot melts the slowest gets some bonus seconds, or something? People would tune in for that, I think.”
54 km to go: Julian Alaphilipe, yesterday’s stage winner and the current occupier of the polka-dot jersey, is cycling on a big ring and shedding his travelling companions one by one as Astana’s Tanel Kangert continues to make his way up the day’s first climb.
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54km to go: The Valverde group is 1min 20sec ahead of the yellow jersey peloton, which is being towed along by Luke Rowe, who said before the stage that he’d almost certainly watching today’s action from a long way behind.
56km to go: Astana’s Tanel Kangert has got the lead to himself again, a 17-second advantage over Julian Alaphilipe (Quick-Step), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Kristijan Durasek (UAD) and Jesus Herrada Lopez (Cofidis). They have a 16-second lead over a another group of 16 riders including Bauke Mollema, Alejandro Valverde and Adam Yates. The yellow jersey/GC group, which is being led by the Sky train, is 2min 21sec behind the Estonian stage leader.
Montee de Peyragudes Here’s the first climb of the day, which the riders have been tackling since the off. They’ve about seven kilometres to go until the summit. Meanwhile in the Sky train at the front of the yellow jersey/GC group, Wout Poels has either been dropped, or has merely gone back to the team car for something or other. Time will tell, although it would be a surprise if he’d cracked already.
60km to go: Tanel Kangert and Nicolas Edet have opened a gap of 1min 09sec on the yellow jersey/GC group. The gap between the two leaders and the group immediately behind them is 21 seconds. Among those in that second group: Alehjandro Valverde, Bauke Mollema, Adam Yates, Rafal Majka, Julian Alaphilippe (current King of the Mountains) and Thomas De Gendt.
61km to go: Tanel Kangert has been joined by Cofidis riders Nicolas Edet out in front, with a group of 19 riders counter-attacking and trying to catch them. Back in the yellow jersey/GC group, Sky are controlling the pace, which means plenty of non-climbers are getting shelled out the back already.
62km to go: Action at both ends of the peloton, where several riders are trying to attack and others are losing touch already. Arnaud Demare, who finished alone about 45 minutes off the pace yesterday, has been dropped again. John Degenkolb is there to keep him company.
63km to go: Astana rider Tanel Kangert has launched an early attack and is being chased by quite a few other opportunists, while Sky are already lined across the road controlling the main bunch.
64km to go: Before the race, Trek Segafredo rider Bauke Mollema had said: “I don’t think the grid start swill bring much. I don’t expect anybody from the top 10 to attack from the start. The stage itself will be interesting because it’s so short but the start itself in this format will not bring much.” He wasn’t wrong.
Stage 17 is GO! GO! GO! GO!!!
Well, that was rubbish. A terrible start from Geraint Thomas, who I don’t think had even clipped his cleats into his pedals when the lights went out and seemed completely unfussed by getting off quickly. They’re climbing immediately, with the ascent of the Category 1 Montee de Peyragudes already under way.
The lights have gone red: And when they go off, we’ll be off. Gentlemen, start your engines!!!!
Nathan Chilvers has a question: “Will there be any noisy revving of thighs on the start line?” he asks. Honk!
The riders are getting ready: There’s a one-kilometre warm-up track which some of the riders have been pedalling their way around before rolling towards their places on the grid. It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you they’re not doing that wiggly-waggly thing Formula One drivers do with their steering wheels on route to the official grid formation to warm up their tyres. So much for marginal gains, eh?
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An email from Angus: “Do you know how much of a gap there is between the different rows on the grid?” he asks.
It’s no more than a bike-length or two as the graphic below explains. It’s worth noting that this grid start also spells bad news for the non-climbing sprinters who are way down on GC, as they’ll be at the back of the field from the get-go, struggling to make the time limit for the stage.
Philippe Gilbert withdraws
Although he was able to finish the stage following the horror crash that saw him catapulted over a wall and into a ravine on a descent yesterday, Philippe Gilbert was found to have a broken knee-cap following yesterday’s stage and has withdrawn from the Tour. The field is now down to 146 riders, from the original 176 starters.
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How today's grid start will work ...
Instead of the usual roll-out, where the peloton is neutralised until race director Christian Prudhomme emerges from the sun-roof of his car and semaphores the signal to start racing, today’s race will begin with a grid start.
Not dissimilar to the star of a Formula One race, the riders will line up in order of their position on GC, with the first 10 in two arrow-head formations of five and five, followed by the next 10 in two straight banks of five. The rest of the peloton will be positioned according to their GC positions in groups of 20, where each rider is free to position themselves wherever they like. When the flag to signal the start of racing drops, there will be no neutralised zone and everyone will be free to race from the gun.
The grid start means that the main GC riders will be isolated from their domestiques in the stage’s opening kilometres and will therefore be forced to decide whether to chase down any early attacks themselves or wait to be united with their team-mates at the front of the race.
Stage 17 set to be an explosive affair
Short and sweet with an innovative grid start on the foot of a big climb that will ensure riders attack from the gun, today’s stage is only 65 kilometres in length but could decide the outcome of this year’s Tour.
Cheating’s Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie discussed the stage in the latest edition of Armstrong’s podcast, The Move, and both agreed that today’s stage should be very uncomplicated for Sky.
Hincapie: “They don’t have to hold back. They can just start the race, get on the front and start time-trialling. They can do it at their own pace. It’s unclear whether [Romain] Bardet or [Tom] Dumoulin will be able to attack, but Sky can just got to the front from kilometre zero and do their own pace.”
Armstrong: “If you’re Geraint Thomas and you can get through the day, man how can you not just see Paris? Just survive the day, manage your efforts, manage your losses. He gets through [stage 17] he wins the Tour de France.”
Hincapie: “I agree, but Froome wants to win, Dumoulin wants to win, Bardet wants to win. There has to be action on the final climb.”
Mitchelton-Scott's stage 16 video diary
Australian team Mitchelton-Scott are still looking for their first stage win of this year’s Tour and had it in sight only for it to be snatched from their grasp when Adam Yates crashed on the final descent to the finish line while looking home and hosed and every inch the stage winner. Here’s the team’s video diary from another disappointing day on this year’s Tour.
Guardian report on a very eventful Stage 16
Sean Ingle and Jeremy Whittle were at Bagnères-de-Luchon to chronicle an extraordinary day’s racing at the Tour de France, involving farmer protests, pepper spray in the peloton, a couple of grisly crashes and – ultimately – French stage win. Here’s how they saw the day’s events unfold.
The top 15 on General Classification
Geraint Thomas remains in control of the yellow jersey, with a lead of 1min 39sec over his team-mate Chris Froome, with Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin a further 11 seconds back in third.
Stage 17: Bagnères de Luchon to Saint Lary Soulan Col du Portet (65km)
From William Fotheringham’s stage-by-stage report: Uniquely, this short stage will see the favourites “gridded” at the start as the battle for position will be intense with the race heading straight up the Col de Peyresourde, followed by another first-cat, Val Louron, before a summit finish made for Rafal Majka or Nairo Quintana – 2,215m above sea level after a 16km climb. The stage starts at 2.15pm (BST) and attacks should begin from the gun.
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