Felix Gall wins the queen stage of the 2023 Tour de France, besting Simon Yates by 34 seconds. Pello Bilbao rounded out the podium. Race leader Jonas Vingegaard came across to take the 3rd step on the podium. Tadej Pogacar popped on the final climb while Jonas Vingegaard surged to add to his commanding lead in the yellow jersey fight. He finishes the day leading by 7’35”
Stage 17 was 165.7km from Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc to Courchevel, taking in the biggest climbs of the 2023 race. Courchevel is a stage finish for the 4th time. These are the previous instances: 1997 (Richard Virenque), 2000 (Marco Pantani), 2005 (Alejandro Valverde).
Just one rider abandoned overnight – Alexis Renard (Cofidis) crashed in the TT yesterday, breaking his elbow. The day was again expected to be a battle between maillot jaune holder Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar.
Not the first attack of the day, but the first to open a gap was Powless, Ciccone, Mezgec, Pedersen and Gregaard going clear at km 10 and opening a 35″ gap by km 13. The lead group soon added Majka, Pinot, Uran, Alaphilippe, Haig, Ciccone, Skjelmose, Gall, Rui Costa, Lafay, Vermaerke, Neilands, S. Yates, Craddock, Harper & Champoussin. If you need any indication of the importance of this stage, Vingegaard and Pogacar both bridged to the stage leaders.
Julian Alaphilippe went alone in the downhill of les Saisies and was later joined by Neilands and Ciccone.
9 riders were in the lead on the ascent to Cormet de Roselend, but that group soon swelled to 33: Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) Rafal Majka, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), David Gaudu, Stefan Küng, Valentin Madouas, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Magnus Cort, Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe, Dries Devenyns (Soudal-Quick Step), Pello Bilbao, Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Giulio Ciccone, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Ben O’Connor, Nans Peters, Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Gregor Mühlberger (Movistar), Matthew Dinham, Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich), Hugo Houle, Nick Schultz, Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech), Simon Yates, Lawson Craddock, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Clément Champoussin, Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-Samsic), Alexey Lutsenko, Gianni Moscon (Astana), Tobias Johannessen, Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X). Soler and Kung soon joined them. Three riders from the G.C. top ten were in this group and they were 1’15” ahead of the yellow jersey group 5km before the summit. By the 75km mark, their gap had moved above 2 minutes.
At km 105, the summit of côte de Longefoy, the gap had opened to 3′. Küng, Houle, Guglielmi had been shed from the lead group.
Coming up was the Col de la Loze. 28.1km of climbing, with a summit at 2,304m above sea level and slopes up to 24%.
Several riders were dropped from the lead group, leaving Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma), Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), David Gaudu, Valentin Madouas, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Pello Bilbao, Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Ben O’Connor, Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citröen), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Matthew Dinham (DSM-Firmenich), Nick Schultz (Israel-PremierTech), Simon Yates, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X) ahead with 30km to go. Yellow jersey group at 2’45”. Pinot, Majka, Bilbao, O’Connor & S. Yates have all won at least one stage of the Tour de France before.
20km to go and 13km to the summit, the leading group was 2’25” ahead of the yellow jersey group led by Jonathan Castroviejo for Ineos.
16km before the end, Pogacar was distanced by the yellow jersey group. He was soon nearly 40″ back from Vingegaard.
Vingegaard attacked the yellow jersey group with 11km to go, attempting to reel in stage leader Felix Gall, 2’20” ahead. Pogacar is at 4’15”.
10km to go and Vingegaard connected with his teammate Wilco Kelderman, but still trailed the lead by 2’03”.
Unbelievable! Cars and motos in the caravan block the road, slowing Vingegaard’s chase! Meanwhile, Simon Yates went solo to catch Gall, trailing by just 20″.
6.2km remaining at Gall was now on the descent to the finish. Vingegaard was 1’27” back and still climbing. Simon Yates trailed Gall by just 16″.
Gall entered the final kilometer of the stage with a solid gap over Yates and crossed the line solo for his first Tour de France win.
Gall – “It’s Incredible”
“It’s incredible. I have no words. Since the beginning of the year I have been happy with what I have achieved,” said Gall at the finish. “Performing well at the Tour de France and winning the queen stage…it’s fabulous.
“After taking on the leadership role, I focused every day on doing the best I could. I was stressing myself a bit, but I have felt really good every day and even better since the beginning of this third week.
“I didn’t think the breakaway was going to fight for victory today, but I wanted to anticipate the leaders a little. Nans (Peters) and Ben (O’Connor) did a terrific job. I waited for the big gradients and decided to give it my all. In the end, I was afraid that I would be caught but I managed to hold on. I am so happy,” he concluded.
I want to say thank you to the AG2R CITROËN TEAM. They have given me so much since last year.”
Second Second for Simon Yates
“We really wanted to try and go after the stage today and all the guys have been fantastic, we had Lawson Craddock there driving the breakaway all day and then Chris Harper to raise the pace and pace me in the final and both guys did a spectacular job, so chapeau to them,” Yates told reporters.
“You never know how fast those guys [Vingegaard and Pogacar] can come from behind, so that was always in the back of my mind and the rest of the guys. Chris did a fantastic job in the final part of the climb when they really started to raise the pace from behind.
“I didn’t know the climb and I don’t know if I’d change anything, but I was very wary of the altitude, so I tried to pace myself and go from there. I think I did a good ride, chapeau to Felix Gall, it was a great ride by him and I’m pretty happy with my ride, it’s a shame it couldn’t be a win, but that’s how it goes.”
Stage 17 Brief Results:
- Felix Gall (Ag2r – Citroen) @ 4h49’08”
- Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla) @ 34″
- Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) @ 1’38”
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) @ 1’52”
- David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ) @ 2’09”
General Classification After Stage 17:
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) @ 67h57’51”
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 7’35”
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) @ 10’45”
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