Back to Stage 17 : Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc > Courchevel

The queen stage was very difficult for many riders. While Simon Geschke (Cofidis) suffered from the first kilometers of the Col des Saisies, Victor Lafay was part of the first group of breakaways. He is joined by Guillaume Martin in the same pass. Neilands (Israel Premier-Tech) and Champoussin (Arkéa-Samsic) also take the wheel of the first breakaways.

After the descent, Alaphilippe, Ciccone and Neilands make up the trio of fugitives. The latter garnered the 17 points of the intermediate sprint.

Going up to the Cormet de Roselend, 35 runners are at the front. Among them, Houle, Schultz and Neilands (Israel Premier-Tech), Champoussin and Guglielmi (Arkéa-Samsic). Approaching the summit, Neilands unfortunately did not manage to hold the leading group.

In the terrible ascent of the Col de la Loze, Guillaume (Cofidis) held on for a long time before continuing at his own pace. He achieved a good stage by finishing 14th, a handful of seconds behind the French champion Valentin Madouas. In the general classification, he is in eleventh place.

Note the presence of Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic) in the top 20 of the day and the 23rd place of Nick Schultz, a few seconds ahead of Pogacar!