Stage 17 of the Tour de France was won by Tadej Pogacar, who narrowly bested Jonas Vingegaard.
But still fell short of displacing the race leader despite the epic nature of the day’s mountainous terrain.
Although the uphill sprint was won by the defending champion Pogacar, he was only able to trim Vingegaard’s overall lead by four extra seconds.
With Thursday’s penultimate mountain stage from Lourdes to Hautacam, the Dane has extended his lead to two minutes and eighteen seconds.
Geraint Thomas of Great Britain came in fourth and maintained his third place overall.
Stage 17 from Saint-Gaudens to Peyragudes was the tour’s shortest road stage at 129.7 kilometres, but it had four classified climbs in the final 76 kilometres, making it one of the most difficult stages.
With Rafal Majka out after injuring his thigh on stage 16 and Marc Soller missing the cut-off time on Tuesday due to illness, Pogacar’s UAE Emirates squad was down to only four riders.
Tadej Pogacar Surges to Win Stage 17 at 2022 Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard Retains Overall Lead
At the Peyragudes mountain top finish, the Slovenian just beat out the race leader, although he ended up four seconds behind in the overall standings.
Stage 17 of the 2002 men’s Tour de France was won by road cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar at the Peyragudes summit finish on Wednesday (20 July 2022).
It was a 129.7km stage with 3,365 metres of climbing, and the Slovenian tried to attack multiple times.
Despite having only three companions after Rafal Majka dropped out this morning with a thigh injury.
On the final 8 kilometre ascent, Pogacar had colleague Brandon McNulty pace him, but he still couldn’t catch the race’s overall winner, Jonas Vingeegard.
The Dane maintained contact with the two-time defending champion and finished second, four seconds behind.
With four stages remaining, his lead in the overall standings is 2 minutes and 18 seconds.
Pogacar Triples up on Stage 17 Mountain Mayhem at Tour de France
At the top of Peyragudes, Tadej Pogaar (UAE Team Emirates) unleashed his final sprint to claim victory in the third stage of this year’s Tour de France.
The Jumbo-Visma pilot, Jonas Vingegaard, was unable to keep up with his rival’s acceleration and came in second.
Another member of Pogaar’s team, Brandon McNulty, finished third on the 17th stage. After the penultimate ascent of Val Louron-Azet, his ferocious pace tore the peloton to pieces.
The UAE Team Emirates duo faced off against the GC leader of Jumbo-Visma in the Pyrenees. Vingegaard only hesitated in the final run because he could not pass his adversary.
Vingegaard maintained his lead in the race, falling behind his closest rival, Pogaar, by barely 2:18.
Conclusion
While Romain Bardet (Team DSM) appeared to struggle on the ascent, he finished only four seconds behind fifth-placed Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) at the summit finish.
Thanks to this ride, Bardet climbed from ninth on GC to sixth overall, 9 minutes and 21 seconds back.
Both Arkéa-Nairo Samsic’s Quintana and Groupama-David FDJ’s Gaudu placed in the top 10 at the stage’s end, keeping them in fourth and fifth place overall.
Teammate Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) also fell out of the top 10 in the standings, and Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) dropped three spots, to ninth.
