Mark Cavendish has survived another day in the high mountains and taken a step closer to Paris, where he is aiming to take another stage win at the Tour de France and also win the green jersey for the second time in his career.
Back home on the Isle of Man the authorities clearly believe he'll finish the race with a big performance on Sunday. They have plans in place for a special fan zone at Villa Marina Gardens in Douglas, where the public can watch the race on big screens.
There will also be a leisure, or procession, ride for local cyclists, which will make its way to the fan zone so everyone can watch Cavendish in action in the final stage in Paris.
While the Manxman went into the Tour - as injured Sam Bennett's replacement - hopeful of even one stage win, he's claimed four so far. He could win two more as Friday's stage 19 and Sunday's finale into Paris are suited to the sprinters.
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While the green jersey was never even spoken of before the race, Cavendish has made it his own so far and wants to keep it. And that means he must make it to the end of the race by beating the time cuts on the hardest mountain stages.
Today's stage 17 was 178.4km to the top of the Col du Portet, which came after the riders tackled the Col de Peyresourde and Col de Val Louron-Azet. It was always going to be a very hard stage.
And coming as it did in the third week of the race, and with Cavendish not having had an altitude camp before the Tour, this phase of the race always looked like it would test him. However, he made it with five minutes to spare today, finishing in a small group at the very back of the field.
His 12-man group was 34:10 down on race leader and stage winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates). Cavendish has benefited from the best lead-out in the world on the Tour and has also had the same team mates ensuring he makes the time cut.
Today he had no fewer than four team mates ensuring he made it; Dries Devenyns, Tim Declercq, Davide Ballerini and Michael Mørkøv all riding at the front of his group and making sure the time cut didn’t beat them.
Earlier in the stage, a breakaway was up the road by the time the race reached the intermediate sprint. That was perfect for Cavendish as his main rival for the green jersey, Michael Matthews (BikeExchange), was not in the escape group.
And while Matthews beat Cavendish at the intermediate sprint, there were so few points on offer in the wake of the breakaway that the Australian challenger only gain one point on the man in green. Cavendish now has 287 points, with Matthews on 251.
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