It’s a big day for GC contenders, as the 17th stage is the first of the last three opportunities to gain time. For the pure bred climbers the stakes are even higher, as they problably face time loss in the ITT of stage 20.
Vingegaard has been the only rider who dropped Pogacar until now. Probably, Jumbo-Visma will come up with a cunning plan to isolate Pogacar. As the GC lead of the Slovene on GC is more than 5 minutes, the attacks should come early, probably as soon as the penultimate climb.
The race takes place on a route of almost 180 kilometres, although the uphill action is packed together inside the last 60 kilometres. The riders tackle the Col de Peyresourde (13.2 kilometres at 7%), Col d’Azet-Val Louron (7.4 kilometres at 8.3%) and Col du Portet (16 kilometres at 8.7%) in quick succession. The last third of the race goes either up or down, so there is hardly time for a breather. To pep things up, the final kilometre of the Portet rises at double digit gradients.
Favourites stage 17 Tour de France 2021
*** Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogacar, Richard Carapaz
** Sergio Higuita, David Gaudu, Michael Woods, Nairo Quintana
* Bauke Mollema, Ion Izagirre, Steven Kruijswijk, Sepp Kuss, Dylan Teuns
Another interesting read: route 17th stage 2021 Tour de France.
Tour de France 2021 stage 17: profiles
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