Tadej Pogačar (UAE-Team Emirates) has stamped his authority on the Tour de France today with a summit finish victory on Col du Portet at the end of 178.4km of racing.
The race leader attacked around halfway up the final 16km climb, with only the very best of the GC riders able to live with him. The early breakaway men were swept aside despite being over eight minutes up by the time they reached the first of three big climbs, the Col de Peyresourde.
That was followed by the Col de Val Louron-Azet before the field raced onto the Col du Portet for the big finale of stage 17. It was on that final climb that the race leader struck out, attacking with 8.4km to go.
Initially four could follow: Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo) and Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën).
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However, when Pogačar went again, O'Connor was the first casualty followed by Urán. That left the big three - Pogačar, Carapaz and Vingegaard - to ride away and, by stage end, form what looks like the final podium of this race.
In the leading three-man group in the closing kilometres today Carapaz proved work-shy, leaving Pogačar and Vingegaard to pull, as David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) began to mount a solo chase behind them.
While Pogačar attacked several times in the closing kilometres he couldn't shake the other two. However, Carapaz came back from the dead with 1.3km to go and attacked very hard for a sustained period; Pogačar holding his wheel but Vingegaard being dropped.
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But as the Carapaz attack continued, Vingegaard performed remarkably well under pressure despite being off the back of the two leaders. The young Dane rode his way back up to his two rivals just before the finish.
Once the finish line came into view, Pogačar pulled the trigger to win the stage by three seconds from Vingegaard, with Carapaz one further second back in 3rd place.
Gaudu was next, in 4th place at 1:19, followed by O’Connor in 5th at 1:26. Then came Wilco Kelderman (Bora-hansgrohe) in 6th at 1:40, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) in 7th at 1:44 and Sergio Higuita (EF Education-Nippo) 8th at 1:49.
Higuita had caught Urán on the final climb and worked with him; the two Colombians and team mates finishing in a three-man group with Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious).
However, that 1:49 time loss for Urán was one of the stories of the day. He slipped from 2nd overall to 4th place. He is now 7:17 down on the yellow jersey and is 1:34 off the final step on the podium at present.
While Urán’s podium challenge is not over, he is now in a much more difficult position. Both Carapaz and Vingegaard today put down a big deposit on finishing 2nd and 3rd to Pogačar when the race ends in Paris on Sunday.
Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) placed 57th today, finishing some 23:51 down. While he is now running out of time to score a stage win, tomorrow will be another chance.
Mark Cavendish has survived again today, with the help of his Deceuninck-QuickStep team mates. They were in the final group on the road at 34:10 but well inside the time limit. Cavendish holds onto his green jersey and is now edging closer to finishing the race.
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