Tour de France 2022: Stage 17 (Saint-Gaudens – Peyragudes, 129.7k)

Inquitus

The third time this Tour finishes on an airstrip, the second time the final hectometres are a brutally steep ramp, and the repeated error of designing a short mountain stage where the first 50 kilometres are flat – not one of ASO’s better or more original ideas, but given current circumstances, it might still do the trick.

Profile

Map

Route description

The stage starts from Saint-Gaudens, one of the Tour’s more frequent stopoffs for the Pyrenean stages – Patrick Konrad won here from the break last year. Located at the foot of the mountains, it developed as a religious community in the Middle Ages before growing to become the largest town in the upper Garonne valley.

The first 30-odd kilometres of the stage are spent riding along the edge of the Pyrenees, as far as the intermediate sprint in La Barthe-de-Neste. This section passes through Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, a sizeable city in Roman times and still so important in the Middle Ages that a (now UNESCO-inscribed) cathedral was built, before being overtaken by other cities in the region (such as Saint-Gaudens) and falling to a village size.

Immediately after the intermediate sprint, the riders turn south to head up the Neste valley as far as Arreau. This village is situated at the bottom of Col d’Aspin, the first climb of the day.

The descent to the Lac de Payolle is much shallower. Fortunately, there will be no flamme rouge arch to collapse onto any riders this time around, instead the route doubles back on itself for the next climb, Hourquette d’Anzican from its easier, but more irregular side, corresponding with the final 10.0 kilometres of the profile below.

The descent takes us back into the Neste valley, which is followed for a brief time into Saint-Lary-Soulan. Here, the riders turn left onto the Col d’Azet. Annoyingly, every profile I can find online is of a different variant, starting further north, so the official profile it is.

The final 8.8 kilometres of the climb are identical to those of the profile below.

The descent is much more technical than what we’ve seen earlier today and yesterday, I remember some crashes having happened here in the past. It ends in Loudenvielle, last seen as a stage finish in 2020 (victory for Nans Peters while Tadej Pogacar went berserk from the peloton on Peyresourde). The road starts to climb very quickly again as we reach the MTF. The final 8.0 kilometres of the stage are identical with the section of this profile from the junction to Loudenvielle onwards. The final 2.8 kilometres are the same as the 2017 stage, which saw Romain Bardet win a very conservatively-raced affair as Chris Froome lost the yellow jersey to Fabio Aru.

Final kilometre of that stage:

[MEDIA=youtube]1pr7lwjgSXA[/MEDIA]

Final kilometres

Peyragudes is one half of a ski resort spanning both sides of the Peyresourde. Outside of cycling and winter sports, it’s best known for being a shooting location for the Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, on this very runway.

Pyrenean scenery in Arreau with its 19th-century bridge.

retalivity

Majka a dns today, meaning Pog only has McNulty, Bjerg & Hirschi left. Think hirschi is a bit better, but he'll be isolated again today unless mcnulty gets up the road early

dastardly00

EDIT: don't bother reading if you have read retalivity's post above 😂

Rafa Majka is a DNS today! That means that Pog is only left with McNulty, Bjerg (who is not a climber), and Hirschi (who has been rubbish, but it's not really his fault because he had Covid and was drafted in at the last minute). So basically he only has McNulty as a domestique in the mountains!

Majka tore his right quad when that happened yesterday. He looked ok at the time though.

Inquitus

Bookies Odds

Tadej Pogacar 3

Jonas Vingegaard 4

Thibaut Pinot 12

Thomas Pidcock 12

Michael Woods 14

Nairo Quintana 18

Nick Schultz 18

Enric Mas 20

Alexey Lutsenko 25

Adam Yates 33

Carlos Verona 33

Chris Froome 33

Daniel Felipe Martinez 33

Patrick Konrad 33

Romain Bardet 33

Bob Jungels 40

Damiano Caruso 40

Geraint Thomas 40

Michael Storer 40

Alberto Bettiol 50

Bauke Mollema 50

Giulio Ciccone 50

Ion Izagirre 50

Rigoberto Uran 50

Valentin Madouas 50

Aleksandr Vlasov 66

Andreas Kron 66

Andreas Leknessund 66

David Gaudu 66

Dylan Teuns 66

Louis Meintjes 66

Luis Leon Sanchez 66

Rafa Majka 66

Joe Dombrowski 80

Pierre Latour 80

Matteo Jorgenson 100

Neilson Powless 100

Sepp Kuss 100

Wout Van Aert 100

Brandon Mcnulty 125

Chris Hamilton 125

Jonathan Castroviejo 125

Matej Mohoric 125

Maximilian Schachmann 125

Felix Groschartner 150

Fred Wright 150

Georg Zimmermann 150

Gregor Muhlberger 150

Kevin Geniets 150

Mattia Cattaneo 150

Simon Geschke 150

Franck Bonnamour 200

Hugo Houle 200

Pierre Rolland 200

Quinn Simmons 200

Andrea Bagioli 250

Dylan Van Baarle 250

Jan Tratnik 250

Philippe Gilbert 299

Kobe Goossens 300

Marc Hirschi 300

Michael Matthews 300

Tony Gallopin 300

Andrey Zeits 325

Sebastian Schonberger 325

Benjamin Thomas 400

Gorka Izagirre 400

Jack Bauer 400

Martijn Tusveld 400

Mathieu Burgaudeau 400

Mikkel Frlich Honore 400

Nelson Oliveira 400

Simone Velasco 400

Tim Wellens 400

Alexander Kristoff 500

Andrea Pasqualon 500

Anthony Perez 500

Filippo Ganna 500

Kamil Gradek 500

Krists Neilands 500

Nils Politt 500

Toms Skujins 500

Adrien Petit 600

Albert Torres 600

Alberto Dainese 600

Alexander Krieger 600

Amaury Capiot 600

Amund Grndahl Jansen 600

Anthony Turgis 600

Antoine Duchesne 600

Benoit Cosnefroy 600

Caleb Ewan 600

Christophe Laporte 600

Connor Swift 600

Cyril Barthe 600

Cyril Lemoine 600

Der Hoorn Taco Van 600

Dmitriy Gruzdev 600

Dylan Groenewegen 600

Edward Planckaert 600

Fabio Jakobsen 600

Florian Senechal 600

Florian Vermeersch 600

Frederik Frison 600

Gac Olivier Le 600

Guillaume Van Keirsbulck 600

Hugo Hofstetter 600

Jasper Philipsen 600

Jeremy Lecroq 600

John Degenkolb 600

Kristian Sbaragli 600

Luca Mozzato 600

Luka Mezgec 600

Luke Rowe 600

Maciej Bodnar 600

Mads Pedersen 600

Marco Haller 600

Matis Louvel 600

Moer Brent Van 600

Nathan Van Hooydonck 600

Nils Eekhoff 600

Omer Goldstein 600

Owain Doull 600

Poppel Danny Van 600

Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg 600

Silvan Dillier 600

Stan Dewulf 600

Stefan Bissegger 600

Stefan Kung 600

Sven Erik Bystrm 600

Tiesj Benoot 600

ukasz Owsian 600

Yves Lampaert 600

Alexis Gougeard 750

Christopher Juul-Jensen 750

Fabio Felline 750

Imanol Erviti 750

Jonas Rutsch 750

Edvald Boasson Hagen 800

Jasper Stuyven 800

Peter Sagan 800

Maxime Bouet 1000

Mikkel Bjerg 1000

Tim Wellens also a dns today with Covid.

dastardly00

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119363273#Comment_119363273

Is that everyone left in the race? 😁

dahat

Huge pressure now on Ineos to make their numbers count to shake the GC.

c.p.w.g.w

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119363318#Comment_119363318

Do Ineos have anyone who can genuinely climb better than Jonas and/or Pog...

On the last mountain day, Thomas & Yates struggled compared to Jonas/Pog...

The only way I could see that happening is for the sky train to try and set a pace so high that it puts Jonas/Pog into the red, but I can't see it happening...but who knows, this edition has been bonkers with the pace and aggressive style all round

Inquitus

How do we expect the top three to go in the 40km TT, any estimated gaps? G is not far behind Pog for instance?

neris

is Froome trying to get in the breakaway again? or just another Israel rider with a weird looking riding style

neris

Dont think Ineos have anyone who can keep up with Jonas or Pog. I think the way both of them are riding especially with attacks doesnt suit the Ineos style, theyre still trying to ride in the old sky style

Inquitus

GC Standings

Macy0161

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119363364#Comment_119363364

In fairness, Froome did ok yesterday, so I think he's a decent shout for one of these stages if he can get up the road. Held the GC group a lot further than he was, and finished in a group with Pinot.

c.p.w.g.w

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119363360#Comment_119363360

Profile seems similar to last year...which Jonas put time on pog, and finished 3rd I believe and I dunno how Thomas did

neris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119363389#Comment_119363389

would like to see him win a stage

retalivity

Pop goes Yates

retalivity

Bjerg is sprinting up this climb!

dahat

Wonder what was on the breakfast menu for UAE? Absolute hammer fest from Bjerg

dastardly00

Trying to watch whilst also on a work call. Where did Kuss disappear to??

retalivity

This is gonna be 1v1 for the last climb, epic!

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364183#Comment_119364183

Couldnt keep up, pulled out to get a bottle, siting about 30s back with Lutsenko

Squidgy Black

Pog looking back, 2km to the top, surely he has to attack soon....

Raoul Duke

Vingegaard out of the saddle more than the others. I think he's looking under more pressure than usual today.

This is great.

Revenge of the Pog.

McNulty has burned them all.

How much risk will Pog take on the descent?

No, back together - go for the last climb.

Squidgy Black

Here we go

Inquitus

Vingegaard looks solid soo far!

dahat

Scenes when UAE don’t even win todays stage.

Interesting the gearing there.

Raoul Duke

McNulty not going fast enough I think. He's basically going the same speed as Thomas - that's not going to put Vingegaard under enough pressure.

CantGetNoSleep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364268#Comment_119364268

I'm not sure

Inquitus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364358#Comment_119364358

I hope you are right, we need Pog to close the gap to keep it in the melting pot.

retalivity

Getting into sh1t or get off the pot territory for UAE here!

Pog doesn't have it in the tank to put big time into yellow it's looking like.

Why wait for so late to attack?

only 2km to go

Look at that ramp!!!!! Ouch!!!!!

Actually this is a runway isn't it?

MangleBadger

I thought Pog had cracked at the end of that finish only for him to kick off as soon as Jonas passed. Fun finish. But don’t think Pog can break him.

retalivity

An awful lot of work by UAE for only 4 seconds

Squidgy Black

I'll be more than happy to eat my words, but I think that's game over for Pog.

And I don't think it's a case that he didn't have what it takes, Jonas is just that strong this year.

De Bhál

brute of a finish, wide, straight and steep

neris

That was a great last few hundred meters. This is probably the best tour in a long time

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364409#Comment_119364409

The 3rd runway they've used this year, i think.

Raoul Duke

Pogacar looked heavy legged at the end with Vingegaard looking fresher. Even after the finishing line Pogacar was draped over his handlebars and Vingegaard looked reasonably ok. The Tour looks over.

Which to me is a shame, as I don't want to go back to an era when the Tour de France winners really only raced the Tour de France during the year. One of the refreshing things about Pog & Rog recently was that they raced and won other one day races. Hopefully Pogacar losing this doesn't make him re-evaluate his racing calendar and make him concentrate more on the Grand Tours.

Macy0161

I'd say it'll more likely make him re-evaluate his racing within the Tour. He wasted a lot of energy, which may have cost him. Mind you, he carried on wasting energy even after he had lost the time, so probably needs a good strong DS that he trusts.

If JV can somehow let Gaudu and/ or Quintana (or Bardet) up the road tomorrow, ineos will work to protect the podium.

the 12 th man

What a great stage,race director for TV keeps changing groups at just the wrong time.

neris

Eurosport are really going over board onpushing this women's race

dastardly00

All riders made it inside the time limit. Fabio Jakobsen finished last, and I think he only had 15 seconds to spare!

lissard

He looked broken by the effort. That last ramp is cruel.

neris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364643#Comment_119364643

You must have to have a sadistic side to your personality to be a grand tour route designer

GandhiwasfromBallyfermot

I think Vingegaard could have easily dropped Pog and gained more time if he had attacked him halfway up the last climb. Looks like he had it in the legs.

GandhiwasfromBallyfermot

Also Pog hands in the air at the line after dragging the yellow jersey up the last two climbs and taking a grand total of 4 seconds off him, lol.

dahat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119364773#Comment_119364773

Maybe he was happy to win the stage for all the work put in by his team. I’d wager good money they knew Jonas wouldn’t crack so went all for the stage.