2017 Tour de France: Stage 17 News, Notes and Quotes

While Stage 17 of the 2017 Tour de France ends with Chris Froome still in the race lead, the climb over the Galibier still shook things up a bit. Here’s today’s news, notes and quotes.

Roglic Completes Transition From Ski Jumping

Not to say that Primoz Roglic hasn’t won big races before, but his win in Stage 17 definitely completes the transition from ski jumper to pro cyclist.

Roglic began as a ski jumper at a high level and competed in the national team. A heavy fall put an end to that career, but opened the door to cycling during his rehabilitation. Roglic joined Team LottoNL-Jumbo in 2016.

According to LottoNL-Jumbo Sports Director Merijn Zeeman, Roglic completed the fast metamorphosis from ski jumper to cyclist at WorldTour-lever because of a number of factors.

“He wants it badly and has an enormous drive. Besides that, there are a lot of good people in the team that worked with him. He has a huge drive and absorbs everything. He is a fantastic guy to work with.”

Michael Matthews Takes Over Points Lead

After a team effort battling for the intermediate sprints and taking two of Team Sunweb’s three stage wins at the Tour de France Michael Matthews (AUS) has taken over the lead in the points classification.

With one goal at the forefront of their mind, Team Sunweb set out to take stage victories at the 2017 edition of the Tour de France. When the opportunity came to take additional points in the green jersey competition, the team rose to the challenge. With strong tactics Team Sunweb positioned Matthews to collect intermediate sprint points wherever they could in order to rebound on a tough deficit. Matthews now leads the classification with a total of 364 points, 160 points ahead of his nearest rival.

After the stage Matthews said: “After getting 50 points yesterday I knew that it was game on. I knew beforehand that I had to be active to get those 20 points today and was aware that even if I did get those points it was still going to be difficult. You never want to see a guy out of a race like this, it’s been such a good battle up to this point and I hope Kittel is ok.”

Galibier lifts Daniel Martin to sixth overall

24 hours after losing ground in the crosswinds, Daniel Martin gritted his teeth and went to the attack on the mythical Col du Galibier, the most featured Alpine climb in the Tour de France history, which this year was crossed for the 60th time. Lying in seventh place at the start of the day, the Irishman surged clear seven kilometers from the top of Galibier and managed to put pressure on the yellow jersey group, which got stretched out and thinned down by the meter.

Dan was caught with around five kilometers to go to the summit, but continued to ride with panache and push a hard tempo at the front of the group sensing that some of his opponents weren’t having the best of times on the 7% gradients of the HC climb. His efforts paid off when Simon Yates (Orica-Scott), sixth in the overall standings, got dropped long before the top and lost more than a minute by the end of the day.

On the long descent to Serre Chevalier, which returned to the race after 24 years, four riders got a gap and fought for the remaining places on the podium, behind solo winner Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo). Dan Martin led home the chasing group half a minute later and concluded the stage in seventh place, for another strong top-10 finish at this edition, after a day that delivered over 4000 meters of vertical gain.

“I attacked because I wanted to test my rivals. I didn’t go too deep, but this doesn’t mean I wasn’t tired. Actually, everybody’s tired 17 days into the race, so this is turning more into a mental battle. I’m glad we left this stage behind and I got to jump one place in the GC”, said Dan, who also explained why he lost time on the descent. “Contador was in front of me and missed a corner, leaving a gap to the others, so that was that. It’s already in the past and now my focus is on the Col d’Izoard, tomorrow. The war of attrition will continue there and Disco Dan is ready to dance!”

Marcel Kittel Drops Out of Race

The day wasn’t a perfect one for Quick-Step Floors, as Marcel Kittel had to withdraw from the race after being caught up in a crash which saw him hit the ground 20 kilometers into the stage. Winner of five stages, a remarkable performance which only a few riders have achieved in the entire history of the Tour de France, the German tried to continue, but the pain, illness and the tough gradients of Col de la Croix de Fer eventually took their toll on him.

“I am very disappointed and I don’t know how to describe my feelings at the moment. To go home with five stage victories is great, but to go home because of a crash and before hitting Paris is a major disappointment”, said Marcel, who was leading the green jersey classification at the time he had to wave goodbye to the race.

“I couldn’t do anything to avoid that crash and lost some skin on my shoulder, back, elbow and hip, which are a bit swollen. I tried to carry on, but pedaling was just painful, especially as in the last couple of days I had to fight with stomach problems and a cold. Now I will take some time to recover before returning to racing and I’m confident the joy of winning five stages at the Tour de France will help me overcome these difficult moments”, concluded Kittel, the most successful rider of the season in terms of victories, with 14 (seven of which came in the World Tour) to his name.

Bardet Remains Third Overall

“I was racing to win,” said Bardet. “I did my maximum on the Galibier, and was close to making the difference. I missed some allies at one point, but I do not regret it. You have to be patient and consistent in the Tour de France. With 25 kilometers of downhill with a headwind, it was more difficult to distance Froome.

“Tomorrow we have a summit finish at an important place for cycling (Izoard), and it will be important to be at least as strong as today.”

Alejandro Valverde Ready To Keep Fighting

Just over two weeks after the crash that took him out of the 2017 Tour de France only 7km into the opening time trial in Düsseldorf, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) spoke to the media at a press conference in the Hospital de Molina, near his home in Murcia.

Joined by Dr. Francisco Esparza, who is following his recovery the closest, and the center’s main officer Pedro Hernández Jiménez, Valverde explained the current status of his recovery -which is sidelining him for the rest of the 2017 season- and thanked all support he has received all over the world at one of the hardest moments of his professional career.

“I knew it was a serious crash since the very moment I crashed. I couldn’t see the injury to my tibia, because we wear very long overshows, but I could see my knee, and I knew it was really a mess, completely shattered. I thought my sporting career had ended there. However, after the surgery, I started to be aware of what my real injuries were, and realized that the crash was serious, but I had good prospects of full recovery. It will be a long way to cover, we’ll have to put much work on it, but I’m calm because I know I can get to what I was before the crash.”

Mavic renews partnership with the Tour