2015 Tour de France: Stage 17 News, Notes and Quotes

Chris Froome once again held his rivals at arm’s length on Wednesday, solidifying his lead in the 2015 Tour de France with only three competitive stages left in the race.

Froome leads the Movistar duo of Nairo Quintana by a massive 3:10 and Alejandro Valverde in third by 4:09 with three stages in the Alps remaining.

“I think we can see my rivals are definitely going to take bigger risks,” Froome told a news conference.

“I definitely feel as if attacking towards the beginning of the stage, that’s a pretty big risk — if you do get away you’re potentially going to spend 100 kilometers up the road, spending a lot of energy which could lead you to quite a deficit for the next few stages.”

Geschke Solos to Victory

Simon Geschke, along with teammate John Degenkolb, attacked early in the stage. Geschke later went solo, powering over the Col d’Allos, the highest point of the Tour and the fourth ascent of the day to a one minute advantage over the first chaser. Through a strong descent, he later increased his lead to 1’40” at the foot of the final climb.

After passing the finish line Simon Geschke said: “I didn’t feel great. I joined the breakaway group together with John [Degenkolb], which was a strong group.

“After the sprint I attacked and started the final climb with an advantage. I had 1’30” for a long time, and I thought I’d just see what would happen. I knew it was a difficult descent and I went pretty fast. On the last climb I gave it my all and was able to hold on to my advantage. I suffered incredibly but I cannot put this feeling into words.

“This was a dream for me since I was 15 years old. After so many attempts it finally happened. I cannot believe it.

“Only if I win the Tour de France my beard will go off so it will not happen today.”

Van Garderen Withdraws

Tejay Van Garderen, America’s best hope for a podium placing since the disgraceful days of Lance Armstrong, abandoned the race mid way through today’s stage.

Van Garderen lost contact with the peloton on the ascent of the Col de Toutes Aures, about 50 kilometers into the 161-km race. With the help of several teammates, he caught up with the peloton on the descent. But not long after, the lead group split and van Garderen was once again alone. He stopped with 70 km to go.

“To be fighting for a podium in the Tour de France, and then the next minute you are sitting in the car, was really hard,” van Garderen said. “It was hard to look my teammates in the eyes. It was hard to call my wife and explain to her what was going on. It was a lot of emotions.”

Van Garderen said he had been fighting a bit of a cold he picked up after Stage 13.

“For awhile I was dealing with it just fine,” he said. “It was just a little bit of the sniffles and not a big deal. But it kept getting a little bit worse. Then, on the rest day (Tuesday), I was having some feverish symptoms and chills. This morning, I woke up and thought the worst of it had passed. I felt ready to race and was back, closer to normal. But then once I got out there, the muscles just had no energy. Straight away from the start, I kind of knew this wasn’t good and hopefully I could just hide and maybe ride into it for a few kilometers and start to feel better. But the sensations never came. It is hugely disappointing.”

Movistar into 2nd and 3rd

Movistar’s Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde now share the lower steps of the podium in the general classification fight for the race.

Quintana remains 3’10” behind the yellow jersey and leading the Young riders’ competition as second overall, while Valverde sits in 3rd spot, 4’09” down, with a 2’25” margin over Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and 2’31” ahead of Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), now in 5th place.

Movistar also leads the team competition ahead of African team MTN-Qhubeka.

Rigoberto Uran on the Podium at Pra-Loup

Etixx – Quick-Step rider Rigoberto Uran earned a 3rd place stage finish at the end of the stage, putting himself into position for the podium thanks to impressive descending of Category 1 Col d’Allos.

“The truth is that it took a while today to get into the breakaway,” Uran said. “I lost a lot of energy to be in the front at the beginning. It wasn’t easy. I probably paid for the effort in the climb of first category, which is when Geschke went. I was also waiting to see what guys as Majka and Pinot were doing. Then in the downhill I tried to close the gap, but it was already too late. Congrats to Geschke. Concerning me, I’m happy with my third place even if we are always out there to try and win a stage. This stage was really hard, and in the next days it will be just as tough, if not more tough. But I will try again in the next days. It won’t be easy, but we have to take the risk to get into the breakaway and see what we can do in the final days.”

Contador loses 2’14”

Tinkoff-Saxo lost valuable time on the stage after a crash down the penultimate climb Col d’Allos cost team leader Alberto Contador two bike changes and 2’14” in the GC.

A grand team strategy, where the squad positioned three outposts, was cut short after a crash stopped Contador in his tracks. Upon crossing the finish line atop Pra Loup with skin scrapes on his right side, Contador explained: “My wheel slipped and I fell. We tried to fix my bike but it wasn’t working and I took Peter’s bike. I tried to descend as well as I could but at the bottom of the climb I had to change back to one of my own bikes to minimize the losses. Cycling is like this, sometimes you do well sometimes you don’t. But right now the most important thing is to recover.”