TdF Stage 17: Mont Blanc -> Courchevel

It’s the Queen Stage (and I’m off to work, hence the early post – how did I choose this day to be in an office?!)

5000m of climbing including the high point of the race, the 2304m summit of Col de la Loze coming right at the end of the stage before a short descent and then a brutal final ramp up the Altiport in Courchevel.

Last time the race was here in 2020, it got down to a battle between Primoz Roglic and – yes, him again – Tadej Pogacar (who came a close second) but it remains to be seen if it’ll be another Jumbo / Pogacar battle; he has promised that it’s not over and this represents an opportunity to test Jumbo and also to solidify Adam Yates’ 3rd place on GC.

I’ll try and have it on somewhere subtle but I suspect it’ll be this thread and the highlights for me…
Over to @Klunk for the images…

I had been looking forward to this (well still am actually) but yesterday has left me a little flat.  I’m not longer sure what I’m watching :(.  Bring it on though, that finish is crazy

That’s a very steep finish

really looking forward to today. Will be watching from the start of the stage I suspect that at some point I’ll have to start avoiding this thread and social media in general so that I can just pause the race for a while and then watch the whole thing “as live”

I’m wondering if there’s a chance for Pidcock today. Guess it depends how the third week of a grand tour is affecting him. He’s more or less out of the top 10 so he could have the leeway to get into a break.

Those descents suit him. 🤞

Mind you if Pogacar has recovered and the rest of the team are OK, I can see them really trying to apply the pressure on Jumbo and Vingegaard.

Edit: I tried to put in a picture of the airport in my first post but the link hasn’t worked, only just realised. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Going to be mental UAE from the start, but 2 mins is unlikely sadly

From Memory ‘altiport’ finishes have always been quite exciting.

I think a lot of us will recognise bits of this route from cycling and skiing holidays, which adds to the fun.

Go Tom, Go Adam and fingers crossed Fred gets some breakaway time.

does that work? edit – yes it does

Pilot’s view of landing (from about 55secs)

Not entirely sure where the race is going to get ONTO the runway – as the pilot sees it, the race will come from the right (from the left in the still image at the top), and there’s a huge bank on that side / at the foot of the runway

EDIT 2 – this map makes it clear, they’ll go UNDER the runway presumably through a tnunel then loop round to get on from the flatter side

EDIT 3 – yep, Google streetview shows it

https://goo.gl/maps/vGUtzme9qbxumFCc9

That’s the one!

It’s kind of like the Peyresourde Altiport where the opening scene of Tomorrow Never Dies was filmed.

Game on. Bring on the alps

Our teams in France waking up to this today… ? Remember what Tadej said about hoping for bad weather? pic.twitter.com/noNbmiGWrD

— Orla Chennaoui (@SportsOrla) July 19, 2023

Sigh.  I’m on some tight deadlines at work, and this massive TdF destraction means working overtime and weekends for the next few weeks.

Oh well, so be it, this is a must watch I suspect!

That weather is going to make the descents interesting.  Fingers crossed no big crashes

Rider’s eye video of the descent from Col de la Loze into Courchevel from CPA president Adam Hansen – he did a similar run for the descent from Joux Plane to Morzine when they resurfaced the road adter complaints about the possible danger posed by the poor surfacing

Oh, this’ll be fun.
I’ve sat eating tartiflette and drinking Bordeaux at the restaurant by the Altiport and the slope it ridiculous. Good fun watching the planes land too.
Col de la Loze is a really tough climb too, this could be a great stage to watch.

We took a look at the monstrous Col de la Loze last week ahead of the @LeTour, take a look at what the riders face today!! What. A. Beast! https://t.co/H96T8xkE65 #TourdeFrance @cottydale

— The Col Collective (@colcollective) July 19, 2023

Finish is looking steep on the webcam.

https://m.webcam-hd.com/courchevel-mairie/altiport

Managed to get it on ITV streaming in a small window of my laptop. 👌

GCN coverage has been on since 11 and the race is off, hadn’t realised it was such an early start – ITV4 coverage started at 11.15, I thought it was 11.45!

I’ve ridden these roads.
Slower than what they’re doing…

😉

i go downhill slower than these guys ride uphill

Ooh, Powless *and* Ciccone up the road. That’ll be interesting for the KOM fight!

Nice looking pumptrack in les saises

A friend’s sister is a commercial pilot, and so is her husband if I remember rightly and do a special test to be able to use Courchevel airport. It needs renewing pretty frequently.  They are keen skiers and have shares in a light aircraft and can pop over for a long weekend!

Good skills, nice if you can do it!

Looking forward to this stage. Finish alone looks tough enough, let alone on top of the big day.

Interesting attack from Junbo-Visma. I guess offense is the best form of defense ?

Interesting attack from Junbo-Visma. I guess offense is the best form of defense ?

None if the commentators seem to be able to work out their tactics either.

There’s an argument to just let the break go and sit up, if UAE want to attack, let them and then follow. 🤷🏻‍♂️

2 uae and 2 jumbo gone off the front.

Commentators seem baffled

So excited for today’s events

Is it just me that thought it odd that the ITV 4 commentator laughed when the helicopter zoomed in on an iconic old Biritsh phone box on top of a mountain and he announced ‘Apparently it conatins a defibrillator..ha ha ha ha’

He’s very “Abe Simpson”, whenever he’s on I end up thinking that I miss Carlton Kirby.

So far a pretty dull stage. (Probably related to the doddery confused commentator though tbf)

So far a pretty dull stage. (Probably related to the doddery confused commentator though tbf)

It’s so hot and such a tough stage that it’s effectively neutralised everything.

It’s beginning to kick off on the descent from Notre-Dame-du-Pré as themajor teams fight to get to the front for the descent 0 it’s very twisty, as you can see on this image

https://goo.gl/maps/zhug2EmFvMoSS9k69

Egan Bernal went down hard and hit his head on a hairpin. He’s back on and riding but not pushing, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear he doesn’t start tomorrow with concussion

Can’t see Pogocar making much of a difference here tbh

Just got home and turned it on….I’m struggling to piece together what is going on? Any chance of a brief synopsis…

Just got home and turned it on….I’m struggling to piece together what is going on? Any chance of a brief synopsis…

Nothing has been going on unfortunately.

Still is nice to see the area where I spent most of my youth

Pogacar went down very early in the race (like within km of the start)

Break is 3 minutes up with some big names in it

Tiesj Benoot, Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma), Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), David Gaudu, Valentin Madouas, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Pello Bilbao, Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Ben O’Connor, Felix Gall (Ag2r-Citroen), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Matthew Dinham (DSM-Firmenich), Nick Schultz (Israel-PremierTech), Simon Yates, Chris Harper (Jayco-AlUla), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X)

Ciccone was in the break and took all the KOMs up to the last climb, then sat up and has been passed by the yllow jersey group. Green jersay is miles back and has been for ages

I’m struggling to piece together what is going on? Any chance of a brief synopsis…

Large break formed.
Ciccone got all the early KOM points.
Pogacar has had a small crash very early on but he’s basically OK.
Everyone has been following everyone else.
The break has been trying to calculate all sorts of stuff around stage wins, riders who are moving up the GC and riders who are there to potentially support leaders later on.
The grupetto formed very early so the sprinters could just roll through the day.
Phil Bauhaus has abandoned.

Not a lot else of note.

Beginning to kick off a bit in the yellow jersey group, a fair bit of whittling down going on.

and pog is gapped, amazing

Pog gone.  Going to lose a lot here

ooof