Tour de France Tour de France 2023, stage 17: Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc - Courchevel, 165.7k

[Devil's Elbow]

Have you recovered yet? Because you know he has.

Also, I'm not sure if I posted this to the right subforum.

Profile

Map

The route
After starting from the town that hosted Sunday's MTF, it's a short flattish start before tackling the Col des Saisies, a perfect spot for a strong break to get up the road.

This backs directly into Cormet de Roselend, one of the hardest non-HC climbs in any Tour, with an intermediate sprint in the kilometre of valley in between.

After a long descent and a valley section, it's time for the easiest climb of the day, Côte de Longefoy, aka Col du Tra from its easier side with the KOM atop the hard section. It makes its Tour debut after cancellation in 2019.

Then, it's time for the final HC climb of the race and the hardest climb of the Tour, Col de la Loze. The first half is different from the 2020 stage.

And a more detailed profile of the section shared with the 2020 route:

Following a short, irregular descent, the riders tackle the steepest runway in the world at the Altiport de Courchevel. They do this profile from right to left, with the finish directly at the end of the 18.66% section.

Final kilometres

 

[Red Rick]

Vingegaard attacks final km of Loze and wins by 30s

 

[Skalman]

Thanks for the OP @Devil's Elbow , It could have been a so interesting stage, what a waste

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Apologies for the late thread, I kept getting server errors when trying to post and had to take out the images one by one to see what was causing the issue. And apparently you need to wait 3 minutes in between trying to post threads, so I just wasted 15 minutes of my life trying to get this up...

 

[RedheadDane]

UAE to do Plan C.
Or maybe Plan D.

 

[Monte Serra]

Adam Hansen posted a nice video of the descent of the Col de la Loze:

View: https://youtu.be/e35iJ48GP0s

 

[zlev11]

another incredible stage design, absolutely nowhere to attack outside of the final 20km. couldn't they at least include the madeleine like they did in 2020?

 

[skippo12]

UAE will pace and gift Vingegaard the KOM jersey.

 

[Peyroteo94]

The question is how much time can Vingegaard take on Pogacar.

 

[SHAD0W93]

UAE will set a crazy pace and hope for the rain. Only question is if Vinge fake drops to say he’s tired or bosses the final.

 

[KOM]

Any chance of rain tomorrow?

 

[Tim Cahill]

Ah what a shame Miguel Angel would be loving this ***

 

[Didinho]

Echelons before the first climb. Rain all day. Pogi takes yellow.

No, this is for the break. Wout to take the stage because he took it easy today.

 

[jaylew]

I get tired of him winning everything but Pog is no quitter and still the best rider in the world imo, despite what happens in this Tour.

No way that guy settles for 2nd - he'll fight til the end so it should be fun at the very least.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Vingegaard and Pogačar to ride away on the Saisies and put everyone bar the Top 10 outside the time limit. Vingegaard then gives Pogi ‚the look‘ 5k from the summit of Loze and wins by 2 minutes.

 

[JosefK]

Dang it, I was really looking forward to this stage after what I assumed would be a nail-bitingly close TT between Vingo and Pog. RIP to the GC battle.

 

[Didinho]

Dang it, I was really looking forward to this stage after what I assumed would be a nail-bitingly close TT between Vingo and Pog. RIP to the GC battle.

Same for everyone I think. But you never know. Pogi needs to go way earlier now and if someone cracks it could also be minutes you lose. But the GC battle looks over indeed, don’t see it happening.

 

[ppanther92]

Pogacar will still try. Vingegaard will want to be very passive after today. But expecting no difficulties at all to match the attacks. After letting the legs speak today, Vingegaard would rather be able to drop Pogacar. But I don't think he will do this.

 

[ManicJack]

Big break goes. Jumbo makes UAE ride the front while they take it easy. No GC change. Wish it would set up an entertaining stage 20, but don't see it happening. Kuss to pass Hindley for 5th place on GC. Rodriguez to get podium spot because UAE has got to use up Yates.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Pogacar should do a 2011 Contador and go bananas without caring about places. He is not going to win unless we have a massive bonk from Vingegaard

 

[IndianCyclist]

Pogi has nothing to lose now. His second place is safe. he will attack just in case Jonas is suffering. Jumbo will allow the break to go to get Jonas an easy ride but maybe UAE will have other ideas. Maybe a stage win will heal some of today's wounds

 

[RobertCrawley]

It looks like the breakaway may have a good chance with the little kicker to begin the race, a downhill, then a cat 1. I wouldn't be surprised to see Wout not Pannakoek get in the break. Neilson and Ciccone will both be there too, probably. I expect to see a lot of A+ riders in a very strong group.

For the GC, the break should keep things sane. Pogi is a great champion and will not give up. UAE will make the race hard. Maybe they send A Yates ahead in the hopes that Jumbo and Jonas chase and burn matches. It's not nearly the threat now that Yates is 9 minutes down. We'll just have to see if Jonas can follow Pogi's wheel on that big final climb.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

UAE to control for so Pog can snag the Bonus seconds. He won't make the same mistake he made last weekend.

 

[Gigs_98]

I know the chances of Pogacar still winning the Tour are incredibly slim, but I'm certain he will not leave without a fight. I'm expecting him to throw absolutely everything and Vingegaard and with a gap that big that could mean an attack at literally any point in the stage. Will it work? Probably not. But there is no way he's not trying absolutely everything.

 

[ice&fire]

Pog will work for Adam to secure podium