Jonas Vingegaard outclassed Tadej Pogacar again on Wednesday (07/19/23) on the 17th stage of the Tour de France over 166 kilometers from Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc to Courchevel. So the Dane is back in front of the overall victory. The Austrian Felix Gall clinched the day’s victory just ahead of Simon Yates and pushed back to Giulio Ciccone in the fight for the mountain jersey.
Pogacar had to let go of Vingegaard on the final climb with 14 kilometers to go and lost an enormous amount of time. Eleven kilometers from the finish in Courchevel, Vingegaard then went on again and shook off both opponents and teammates and literally flew up the mountain. The day before, Pogacar had been overtaken by his Danish opponent by more than a minute and a half in the time trial.
“I’m dead,” Pogacar radioed to his sporting director – the admission of defeat. Symbolic of Jonas Vingegaard’s likely overall victory.
Ciccone collects mountain points,
Early in the stage a leading group had formed around Giulio Ciccone in the polka dot jersey of the leader in the mountains classification and the strong climber Julien Alaphilippe. Ciccone was the first to collect a further 25 points on the Col des Saisies, on the Cormet de Roselend and on the Côte de Longefoy and in the meantime extended his lead in the special classification.
A little later, Phil Bauhaus, the best German sprinter, had to give up this year’s tour – apparently completely exhausted, the driver of Bahrain Victorious had to get off his bike.
When will Pogacar attack?
A second group with overall leader Vingegaard and his challenger Tadej Pogacar, who must have fallen shortly after the start because he was suddenly seen in the field with a bleeding knee, followed no more than three minutes behind. That should not change during the 17th section of this year’s tour – up to the last difficult climb up to the Col da la Loze at 2304 meters above sea level.
In the end, only one question was asked there: When on the approximately 30 km long climb does the Slovenian attack the yellow jersey? The three kilometers before the pass in particular seemed to be ideal – there, where the climb up the mountain is extremely steep at 24%.
Pogacar several minutes behind
But things turned out differently: Pogacar was no longer able to keep up with the pace of Vingegaard and his team Jumbo-Visma on the climb and had to let it tear off. A gap of 30 seconds quickly opened up, which grew to well over five minutes in the end. There was a “traffic jam” on the last few meters of the climb when a motorbike and an official vehicle came to a standstill in the tight line of spectators, slowing down Vingegaard and his assistant Keldermann. The incident should not have been decisive for the race.
Finally a day for the sprinters again
One day after the Alps, the classification drivers can rest a little: The 18th section from Moutiers to Bourg-en-Bresse is very flat, there are only two mountains of the fourth category on the plan and a subsequent sprint classification. The finish after 185 kilometers promises a mass sprint.