Colombia’s Miguel Angel Lopez won stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday to climb third in the overall standings as race leader Primoz Roglic extended his advantage.
The race ascended to 2,304m altitude atop the Col de la Loze where Slovenian rookie Tadej Pogacar lost a handful of seconds to his compatriot Roglic in the race for the yellow jersey on a day the defending champion Egan Bernal withdrew.
Suffering from a bad back for a month now, Bernal, his defence in tatters, said a sad goodbye to the 2020 edition when Ineos decided to protect the long-term interests of its 23-year-old captain.
A day after the race was cleared of COVID-19 to run all the way to Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron was present as the peloton struggled through villages full of ubiquitous baskets of flowers hanging from Swiss-style ski chalets.
