Today’s is a stage of two (uneven) halves, one of which is long and fairly benign, stretching from the start in Muret to the finish line of the intermediate sprint in Bagnères-de-Luchon, a distance of some 113km.
From then on it turns evil, with what the Tour itself calls “the terrible trio”: two category one climbs, the 13.2km Col de Peyresourde and the 7.4km Col de Val Louron-Azet, followed by the beastly, hors-categorie, 16km at 8.7% Col du Portet:
Tour de France™
(@LeTour)📈 Col du Portet 16km, 8,7% Après @NairoQuinCo sur le #TDF2018, qui triomphera au sommet ? / After @NairoQuinCo on the #TDF2018, who’ll be the first at the summit? #TDF2021 pic.twitter.com/6Su948ltTn
After none of the GC contenders did anything remotely interesting yesterday, the supposition is that someone must be planning something either for today or tomorrow. As Jeremy Whittle put it at the start of his Stage 16 report:
The reigning Tour de France champion, Tadej Pogacar, is steeling himself for last‑ditch attacks on his race leadership in what may prove to be the toughest day of this year’s race – the 17th stage to the towering summit of the 2,215-metre Col du Portet pass on Wednesday.
Time is running out for those with lingering hopes of victory on the Champs-Élysées. With only two mountain stages and one time trial now remaining, in which any meaningful inroads can be made on the 22-year-old’s five-minute advantage, the race leader is expecting his grip on the yellow jersey to be tested.
Well, fingers very much crossed for that. Here’s what William Fotheringham had to say about the stage in his pre-race stage-by-stage guide:
Stage 17, Wednesday 14 July, Muret – Sant-Lary-Soulan 178.4km
The first of two mountain-top finishes that should decide the race. There’s a lengthy, flattish preamble where a large break should gain several minutes – in recent years these have involved as many as 30 riders – while the final 50kms includes a daunting trio of passes, culminating in the hardest finish of the Tour, the super-steep 10 miles to the Col de Portet. López, Roglic and Pogacar will be the main men here, and the stage win should go to the best climber out of the break – a rider like Gaudu.
And here’s Jeremy’s report on yesterday’s solo stage success for Patrick Konrad: