Stage Winner: Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost)
GC Leader: Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)

“I chose my moment very well,” he added. “It was a beautiful victory.”

It was a fast and furious start to Wednesday’s Stage 17, as the race averaged more than 50km per hour over its first hundred-plus kilometres.

With more than one hundred kilometres still to go, a four-man breakaway of Team Uno-X Mobility’s Magnus Cort Nielsen, Visma-Lease a Bike’s Tiesj Benoot, Groupama-FDJ’s Romain Grégoire, and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe’s Bob Jungels settled off the front.

Behind them, riders in the peloton threw punch after punch in a ceaseless cycle of attacks. Still, the break maintained a lead just shy of a minute for dozens of kilometers.

Shortly after the lead group crossed the day’s only intermediate sprint segment, Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philipsen and current green jersey Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wantywent bar-to-bar, with Girmay ultimately edging Philipsen at the line. Girmay netted eleven points to Philipsen’s ten. But after yesterday’s disastrous crash, every point counts for Girmay.

The 177.8-kilometre day, from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Superdévouly, sloped slowly upwards for over its first 139 kilometres. The pace combined with the gradual grade found riders like Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Sam Bennett and Movistar’s Fernando Gaviria falling off the back, eventually abandoning their Tour de France mid-stage.

By the time the race reached the foot of its first climb, the category 2 Col Bayard, at kilometre 139, there were just under 63km to go. However, those 63 included three climbs: the Bayard, followed by the Category 1 Col du Noyer, and finally, the Category 3 Etienne en Dévouly, atop which the day would end.

Still, the four-man break continued to increase their cushion, opening up nearly two minutes on a forty-eight-man chase group and an almost four-and-a-half-minute gap on the peloton.

Jayco-AlUla’s Simon Yates attacked the lead group as everyone made their way up the penultimate climb, catching the leaders and passing them in one single move. By then, the peloton was more than seven-and-a-half minutes down, meaning the winner was somewhere in or near the breakaway. EF Education-EasyPost’s Richard Carapaz was the only rider to counter Yates’s move, sticking on his wheel up the Noyer and launching an attack of his own 1.7 kilometres from the summit. By the time he reached the top of the climb, Carapaz was fifteen seconds clear of Yates.

Eight-and-a-half behind them, Tadej Pogačar attacked. For a brief moment, both Jonas Vingegaard and Remco Evenepoel responded. But Vingegaard quickly cracked, and Evenepoel could only hold Pogačar’s wheel for a few short moments. However, both worked with Vingageeard’s Visma teammate Christoph Laporte to catch the yellow jersey on the descent of the day’s next-to-last climb.

Carapaz, who has so often been at the pointy end of attacks during this Tour de France, crossed the finish line thirty seconds clear of Yates. Movistar’s Enric Mas rounded out the day’s podium.

Back in the yellow jersey group, Evenepoel attacked at the start of the final climb, quickly gapping Pogačar and Vingegaard, chewing into the latter’s lead for second place overall, which stood at 2:10 when the day began.

Evenepoel crossed twelve seconds clear of Pogačar and fourteen seconds clear of Vingegaard, bringing his gap down to 1:58 off second place and 5:09 from the yellow jersey.

“That’s a great win,” said Carapaz. “I knew this morning that today was a big objective for us and the team. We wanted to win a stage, that’s why we came here. But it was really really hard. [There have been] so many attacks, and nothing has come of it until now. This is something that I’ll always remember.

“I chose my moment very well,” he added. “It was a beautiful victory.”

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