After more than two weeks of racing, and even after a second rest day, the effort was beginning to show for a lot of teams. With Peter Sagan and Rafal Majka holding both the Maillot Vert and Maillot à Pois, and Roman Kreuziger sitting just outside the top ten on GC, there’s still much to fight for. By the end of a tough stage, Peter increased his lead in the points competition, while Rafal took another top three finish, adding to his climbers’ points total in the process.
With the rest day allowing the riders a chance for a little recovery, it was back to full gas racing for stage 17 of Le Tour. The 184.5km stage, which took place entirely in Switzerland, saw riders cross three categorised climbs before a Hors Catégorie finish. While these two final climbs were where the action was likely to take place, the previous 150km would wear riders down, the parcours making the most of what the Swiss terrain had to offer.
After several early attacks, as well as a crash, the attack of the day went out after 80km. With two Tinkoff riders in the break – Rafal Majka and Peter Sagan – it was clear that points were the plan for today’s stage, with Peter looking for the intermediate sprint points at the foot of the Col de la Forclaz and Rafal on the hunt for points to strengthen his position as King of the Mountains. The break quickly built up a strong advantage, with Rafal taking points on each of the day’s climbs, and Peter adding to his lead in the Maillot Vert contest taking the full 20 points in the sprint. Peter’s job done, he dropped away from the breakaway, while Rafa’s group became a trio as the Hors Catégorie climb put the hurt into the break.
Sport Director, Steven De Jongh, saw the efforts made to support each other to gain the points – and the UCI World Champion pulled hard to support the Polish national road champion. “We saw a super strong Peter who helped Rafa in the break. Peter did a terrific job, as did the rest of the team, with everyone committed to get Rafa out front to pick up more points for the mountains jersey.”
It was a team effort – by the team and for the team – as the riders wanted to show their appreciation to Oleg Tinkov for his support, as Rafal explained after Peter’s huge effort. “Today, Peter brought me into the breakaway. He’s a machine and was pulling on the climbs so that I could take the points too. He was so strong today, respect to him and also to my teammates who helped me a lot. I need to win this jersey for my teammates, my team and for Oleg – he has supported us for five years and we want to take these jerseys to Paris for him.”
The UCI World Champion was eager to work for his teammate today, Peter explained after the stage. “We wanted to try today, I told him ‘we will see if I can do my best to get you in the break’. We were trying for the first 60km on the flat but then the breakaway went after the first climb, so it was hard for me to control the race on the flat and then also the climb. But I’m very happy he got some points for the mountains jersey, and I got some more points for my jersey too.”
With the escape building a 10-minute lead on the peloton, it seemed clear that the break was aiming to stay out for the rest of the day. Behind them, Roman Kreuziger was staying with the Yellow Jersey group. As the pace rose and the final 10km passed, the attacks came and towards the end of the day the effort was beginning to show on the face of the Czech national road champion. Coming home in 23rd position, Roman maintained his 11th spot in the GC.
Ahead, having done his job to take the climbers’ points, Rafal set about climbing at his own pace, securing a podium finish and the associated points on the line. The 10.4km-long climb at 8.4% was tough on all the riders, and with the steepest sections at the top, riders crossed the line one by one.
At the finish, the King of the Mountains couldn’t help but smile about how his Tour had gone. “I’m happy, not disappointed – I’ve been in the break six times now this Tour de France which isn’t easy already. Maybe I’ve often lost the victory but I have now a lot of points for the KOM jersey. Congratulations to Zakarin, he was stronger today, and I’m always suffering after the rest day. There are still two hard stages for me and I’ll try everything.”
While Rafa was unlucky not to take the win, De Jongh noted, he extended his lead in the KOM contest to 83 points. “Of course Rafa was desperate to win the stage but the other two were too strong and it was a climb where you had to have the legs. He may not be super happy with it but he can be very proud of what he did, and he’s taken a comfortable lead in the jersey.”
Praising the stage winner, De Jongh was confident that the team’s GC leader, Roman Kreuziger could claim back time in the coming days. “Zakarin is a deserving winner today, and we can be happy with our result. Peter also extends his lead in the green jersey to make that safer. For Roman, I think this was a hard climb for him. He couldn’t follow when the pace went up but in the last few kilometres he set his own rhythm and didn’t lose a major amount of time, I’m confident that in the coming days he can continue to make time up.”
Tomorrow sees the race’s second time trial, but this being the Tour de France, it’s another tough one. The climb starts 4km into the 17.5km route, ascending then for 11km, before a short descent to the finish in Megève. The steepest ramps come at the foot of the climb – a punchy 3km section with gradients of up to 11% but there’s no section of the stage riders will be able to settle into a rhythm, with the ever-shifting gradient.
