Pedersen started the day in green, but he knew that if he was going to solidify his lead before a trio of stages in the mountains, he would have to light up the racing and distance the likes of Philipsen and Girmay.
One of them is well out the back, but the Belgian – who started as his nearest rival – is still well in the race for the stage win. Much of the racing today has been dictated by how Lidl-Trek want to play it.
When the Dane made his move to bridge across, it brought several riders with him, one of which was Philipsen, who is currently in a move about 20 seconds behind the lead breakaway where Pedersen is.
65km to go
Mads Pedersen is on the attack again! With the gap to the break down to just 20 seconds or so, he scorched across the gap and joined the front group. A reminder that there’s still 35km to go until the race reaches the late intermediate sprint. He’s got Simmons to help drag the lead group along.
Adam Yates appears to massively struggling. He dropped back curiously from the peloton, and is now two minutes behind and still barley pedalling. He doesn’t look himself or in tip-top shape. He crashed out of the Giro earlier this season, but that was the first time he hadn’t finished a Grand Tour in his career, so him climbing off would be a big shock.
Breakaway up to 19 riders
Contact has been made by Jorgenson, Healy and Le Berre, strengthening the break. However, they will need to get a move on in front if they want any hope of making it to fight out the win – the gap to the charging peloton is down to just 30 seconds now.
Decathlon are committing riders to the chase, with the gap down to 54 seconds. After realising Uno-X would help, they came back to control, but it will take a fully concerted effort to bring back those in front.
The chasing trio of Jorgenson, Healy and Le Berre is making a good impression on the deficit to the break. They are now within 27 seconds of making it a break of 19 riders in front. It would also give Hagenes and Baudin a teammate each up in front.
NSN aren’t giving up in the group who are 3:13 off the lead of the race, and with the peloton failing to work properly together and 75km still to ride, they are ride to keep pushing. Whether they can make it bike in time for the sprint is a different question, though.
A lull in pace in the peloton has allowed for three more attackers to try and re-ignite the fight for the stage win: Jorgenson, Healy and Mathis Le Berre. They are 50 seconds behind the breakway – which has also been squabbling in front and failing to cooperate – with the peloton now at 1:17 with Uno-X actually committing a rider to the chase.
Decathlon CMA CGM have the best of both worlds at the moment, with Tiesj Benoot in the break, young GC star Paul Seixas sat comfortably in the peloton, and sprinter Olav Kooij in the hunt for a second stage win with his teammate contributing to the chase.
Some of the sprinters are in the main peloton, notably Olav Kooij, Jasper Philipsen, Søren Wærenskjold, Huub Artz and, of course, Mads Pedersen. They are closing in on the breakaway of the day, just 38 seconds back with 91km to go.
The likes of Biniam Girmay, Phil Bauhaus, Milan Fretin, Pascal Ackermann, Max Kanter, Pavel Bittner and Magnus Cort are all in the groupetto, around three minutes behind the leaders and 2:30 behind the main chasing group.
Breakaway forms with 100km to go
Finally after all of the all-out action, there seems to be a breakaway forming on stage 17. There are now 16 riders in the front: Per Strand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Pablo Castillo, Einer Rubio (Movistar), Clément Braz Afonso, Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ United), Rick Pluimers (Tudor), Simmons, Van der Poel, Bernal, Tarling, Stuyven, Engelhardt, Benoot, and Mohorič.
The splits in the peloton have been undone, with the Del Toro and Pedersen group rejoining Pogačar and the rest of the GC favourites in the second group on the road. Decathlon are pacing on the front in what is now the peloton, who are 42 seconds behind the leaders.
110km to go
Most of the big GC names are in the front group of the race, which has come back together, but notably missing is third place overall Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
The Mexican star is in the group at 40 seconds from the peloton – where Pogačar, Evenepoel and Seixas are – which also includes green jersey and stage win hope Pedersen, who dropped back after all of his early efforts.
Côte de Saint-Jean d’Arvey
Onto the final categorised climb of the day, the Côte de Saint-Jean d’Arvey (1.1km at 5.7%) and the attacks are coming thick and fast again. Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) led things into the foot, but it’s Van der Poel, Bernal, Simmons and Tarling who are at it once more on the attack.
More huge crowds welcomed the riders onto the slopes, where Van der Poel really surged to split things up. Visma have done much of the chasing in the splits behind to try and re-form a huge break at the front.
2019 yellow jersey winner Bernal led the race over the crest of the climb, with no more categorised ascents to come, but with 114km of more thrilling racing still to come.
115km to go
A look inside one of several groups who tried to attack away in these early stages, with Van der Poel, Simmons, Tarling and Bernal involved. That action has come back together, and the race is now onto a long section of downhill roads before the final categorised climb of the day, where riders like those seen below will surely try again…
Col des Prés
The gap to the breakaway finally started increasing at the foot of the longest climb of the day: the Col des Prés (3.5km at 6.8%). Alpecin-Premier Tech continued to ride at the front of the peloton, even with Van der Poel up the road in the break, but with no real venom in their pace.
Soon after though, having missed it, green jersey Pedersen went off on the attack on his own with a 22-second gap to make up. He was followed by several others who didn’t make the initial move, George Bennett (NSN), Vlad van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious), and Alpecin’s Tim Marsman.
Visma kept the pace high in the front group with the gap to the peloton coming down quickly, with that Pedersen move threatening to undo all the work of those in the latest break.
US champ Simmons actually dropped from the front group to try and help the Dane, but he started to pay for his efforts towards the top. Still, the race came back together before the top of the climb, despite the efforts of Van der Poel, who took the maximum KOM points at the front of the splitting peloton.
130km to go
This latest break is full of big name stars, notably Van der Poel, Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon CMA CGM), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep), Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos). It’s not fully going away, though, gap still at just 10 seconds.
Still, any team who has missed it is pacing in the peloton behind, knowing this group of very strong riders could be the one that goes. There’s around 22 riders in the front for the moment.
Lidl-Trek are still trying to crack the race apart with Pedersen and Simmons, but with so many teams chasing to try not to miss out, the balance is swinging in favour of the sprinters who are surviving these opening stages well enough.
Just as I typed, though, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) has blinked and attacked in the latest move. Phe peloton is exploding into life again, and the presence of Alpecin’s main man would suggest they are OK to let the final sprint chance for Jasper Philipsen go in favour of their big star having a go from the break.
Côte de Rossillon
That leading group of five did not last long on the second categorised climb of stage 17, with the peloton quickly swallowing them back up.
EF were quickly on the attack again, however, with Richard Carapaz taking the maximum King of the Mountains points at the crest and continuing on with the move. Green jersey Pedersen and polka-dot jersey Paret-Peintre were not far away as the race went over the top.
37km raced at full gas and an average speed of 45kph, mostly uphill, but still no breakaway. It’s going to be a long one…
140km to go
A new trio attacked off the front: Max Walker (EF Education-EasyPost), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis). Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) attacked across to make it a leading quartet, with Ben Healy also coming across to join his teammate.
They are approaching the foot of the next climb on today’s route, the Côte de Rossillon (1.7km at 5.3%).
Crash in the peloton
Several riders have been taken down in the peloton on stage 17, as the aggresive start causes chaos. Tom Pidcock was down but quickly back on his bike and looked largely unaffected, but his Pinarello Q36.5 teammate and British champion Fred Wright came down more heavily, left with road rash and checking a wound on his left hand.
Also involved in the incident was fellow GC top 10 rider Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Marc Hirschi (Tudor), Rob Stannard (Bahrain Victorious), Dylan van Baarle (Soudal-QuickStep), and Alexandre Delettre (TotalEnergies).
All of the riders involved are back on the bikes and everyone seems to have escaped anything more sinister.
150km to go
Lidl-Trek have been very active, as expected, with Pedersen, Quinn Simmons and Mathias Vacek all among the attackers at the start. They’ve not managed to split things fully to form a break, but they will be looking for a repeat of stage 4 to Foix.
On that day, it was the three riders mentioned above who got into the day’s break and completely dominated proceedings, with Simmons and Vacek marking every move in the finale for Pedersen to sprint to the win.
That day was carefully planned out by the team months in advance, and with today’s parcours suiting their riders perfectly, similar can be expected from Pedersen and his domesqieus.
Côte de Bassa
The two early breakaway were both reeled in at the foot of the first categorised climb of stage 17, the Côte de Bassa (1.5km at 5.5%). Alaphilippe and Healy were both in the group that came across to them, but with almost half of the peloton on the more this afternoon, the race was quickly back together with 157.5km to go.
Netcompany Ineos are really looking to get something out of today’s stage, knowing they likely won’t be able to make much impact in the high mountains. They’ve had Kévin Vauquelin and Josh Tarling on the attack on the first climb.
Vauquelin was solo for the opening part of the climb, as the peloton lulled momentarily. Approaching the final 500 metres, though, he was passed by a group led by green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and polka-dot jersey Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep). The Frenchman took the maxmimum points at the crest, but it’s almost straight onto the next climb with the peloton still together.
The two early leaders on stage 17, Abrahamsen and Veistroffer. The peloton is exploding behind them with Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost) Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) among the latest groups trying to break away.
Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) has come down in a crash, sliding out after a roundabout. As a result, there are splits in the peloton.
That big chasing group came back together to the main bunch, which is still. all in one long line as the attacks continue to fly.
165km to go
It’s still Veistroffer and Abrahamsen leading the race on stage 17, and they have a slim lead of around 20 seconds on the peloton. Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-Easypost) and Marco Haller (Tudor) had set off in pursuit, but a huge group has just attacked off the front of the peloton and joined them.
Massive crowds welcoming the riders in this early phase of racing.
The earliest moves came from Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility). Behind them, it was obvious more riders were ready to go – the front of the peloton very much resembling a coiled sprint right now.
There’s some tricky road furniture to navigate just to add to the expected madness of this stage start. The riders are heading briefly downhill out of Chambéry, before they reach the foot of a long section of climbing with 163km to go.
Tour de France Stage 17 underway
After a long section of neutralised riding to build the tension even more, the 17th stage of the Tour is underway, and fireworks are expected. Don’t take your eyes off it.
Pogačar’s expectations for stage 17
Here’s what race leader Tadej Pogačar had to say at the start, and he’s expecting anything but an easy day, knowing full well how aggressive the opening two hours will likely be:
“Very hard start and hopefully an easier finish, but you never know. I think it’s quite a difficult day in my opinion. It looks not so hard, but it’s going to be a pain in the ass,” said the Slovenian, though it sounds like UAE won’t be overly involved if they don’t have to be.
“We are close for team classification also, and it’s something the guys would really like to have, but it’s not the main priority of course, so we’ll see what happens.”
Unofficial start of stage 17
Riders are gone from the start line of stage 17 of the Tour de France in Chambéry! The flag should be dropped at kilometre 0 in around 15 minutes. From then on, expect major breakaway action all the way to the line.
No prizes for guessing which bus tends to be the busiest at each of the stage starts. Anything to get a peak at the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar, but also the ultr-popular Isaac del Toro. Maybe only Decathlon CMA CGM’s bus and the furore surrounding French hope Paul Seixas rivals this.
Just 10 minutes to go now until the unofficial start of stage 17. It’s more blue skies and hot weather welcoming the riders to Chambéry on this Wednesday afternoon.
After the leaving the race following his stage 15 crash, Jonas Vingegaard has reportedly undergone successful surgery to his fractured collarbone. Despite the sadness of having to abandon the race, the Dane showed his leadership as he bid farewell to his teammates on Monday, with the remaining riders changing focus to chasing stages in these final five days:
All of the riders are currently signing on at the start in Chambéry. You can watch the team presentation live before every stage on Le Tour’s X account: Podium signature stage 17.
It was a bittersweet day for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe as they took victory, though, with last year’s podium finisher and Evenepoel’s co-leader Florian Lipowitz crashing out of the race. He suffered a fractured collarbone after coming down at high speed around a corner, leaving the Belgian to defend his second place without a second GC option.
Florian Lipowitz abandons the Tour de France after a heavy crash during the stage 16 time trial
If you missed any of the action from yesterday’s 16th stage, it was a dramatic start to the final week with a back-to-back winner in the individual time trial:
Today’s route
Here’s a look at the profile today, which is listed as a flat stage by the Tour’s official website, but the four categorised climbs in the first 60km of the route might have something to say about that.
Heading southwest from Chambéry down to Voiron, it’s likely the final chance for the breakaway specialists to have their chance, with three brutal mountain stages and the finale in Paris likely to favour the top GC riders better.
A key point on the route is the positioning of the intermediate sprint in Colombe, where current green jersey points leader, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), will be looking to defend against Alpecin-Premier Tech’s Jasper Philipsen. But will either of them be able to make it and fight out the points available at the finish?
Lidl will be the favourites as Pedersen is the better climber and has already won from a breakaway this Tour, but Alpecin have Mathieu van der Poel as a second option for the stage if green looks impossible. Either way, it should be fast and explosive right from the flag drop at 13:30 CEST.
Good morning and welcome to Cyclingnews‘ live coverage of stage 17 of the Tour de France!