Tour de France 2023: Saint Gervais Mont Blanc - Courchevel

 The stage after the time trial in the high Alps with the highest altitude pass as part of the finale of the stage was meant to have drama. The drama definitely showed up with Felix Gall winning from the breakaway with a master class of climbing strength over the Col de la Loze. The yellow jersey competition would be driven wide open with Tadej Pogacar's inability to keep pace with the yellow jersey over the last climb.

Route Description: The 17th stage was from Saint Gervais Mont Blanc to Courchevel over 165.7 km. The stage starts with the Category 1 climb, Col des Saisies, starting 17.1 km into the stage and cresting 13.4 km further down the road. The descent of the Col des Saisies is followed by the mid-stage sprint at Beaufort. Almost immediately after the sprint is the start of the climb of the Category 1 climb of the Cormet de Roseland which is 19.4km in length. A long descent from the top of the col preceded the Category 2 Cote de Longefoy which was only 6.6km long. A very technical descent would lead the race to the foot of the Col de la Loze, an HC category climb, with a length of 28.1 km. The climb also had bonus seconds at the top. The descent of the Col de la Loze to Courchevel was down a bicycle path. The finish line for Courchevel was setup at the top of the runaway which meant a super steep final 500 meters of the stage.

Race Summary and Analysis: A large breakaway would form including Alexis Renard (Cofidis). French champion Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost), Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Neilson Powless, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Giulio Ciccone, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën), Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Simon Yates, Lawson Craddock, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Clément Champoussin (Arkea-Samsic), Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X) formed 20km into the stage. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) would crash inadvertently 15 km into the stage on an uphill section of the stage. He would ride on unscathed. Giulio Ciccone would be the first to crest both the Col du Saisies, Cormet de Roseland, and Cote de Longefoy to solidify his lead on the King of the Mountain jersey. The breakaway would be reduced to 15 riders at the start of the Col de la Loze.. The breakaway was being driven by the three riders of Ag2r-Citroen. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroen) had the most to gain from being in the break as they could climb higher in the general classification. As the race hit the steep part of the climb, the bicycle path to the top of the climb, Felix Gall attacked the reduced break to win the stage. He would survive the extreme slopes of this climb and win. Meanwhile in the yellow jersey group Jumbo-Visma set a solid pace as the climb started. Their efforts would bear fruit as Tadej Pogacar would be distanced 13 km from the top. Once Jumbo-Visma noticed the gap had opened Sepp Kuss went to the lead of the group  and set a blistering pace to increase the gap. Eventually Jonas Vingegaard would attack in the upper sections of the climb and started to reduce the gap to the lone leader Felix Gall. He would be briefly held up by a stalled sedan containing race organizers and/or referees. The delay may have affected Vingegaard's ability to win the stage, but it probably had little impact on his time gain over Pogacar. Vingegaard would end up finishing one minute 52 seconds behind the stage winner with Pello Bilbao and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) riding with him into the final 500 meter incline. Tadej Pogacar would finish seven minutes and 37 seconds behind the stage winner and is now seven minutes 35 seconds behind Vingegaard in the race for the yellow jersey. It seems quite evident that Vingegaard had a plan to attack today on the hardest stage in the mountains in this year's Tour de France. The Tour is not over as there are three stages left before the ceremonial stage on the Champs Elysee, and Saturday is another serious climbing stage with an uphill finish.