Morning all.
The news over night that greeted us is that Bernal has dropped out of the race, no real surprise, and in an odd way it may save INEOS some face.

Today we are greeted with the queen stage, a huge day for all, and potentially key for GC. Want the details? Of course you do.

The 17th stage of the Tour de France travels to the unprecedented Col de la Loze in the mountains above Méribel. This 22.5 kilometer climb takes in sections at more than 20%. The race kicks into gear in Grenoble and amounts to 168 kilometers.

The final haul up begins in ski station Méribel. Until June the pass was not suited to carry the yellow caravan. The road was accessible until the airport at approximately 1,800 meters, but six newly paved kilometers allow the Tour de France to include the Col de la Loze all the way to the top at 2,304 meters.

De Col de la Loze is an ascent of 21.5 kilometers long. The slope mostly hovers around 7%, but kilometre 18 and 19 stand out with 11% gradients, plus this section features sections at over 20%. The last 2.5 kilometers before the finish are equally explosive with an average gradient of almost 10%.

Primoz Roglic is treated. Along the way to the finish line the riders can see the Ski-Jump from the 1992 Albertville at an elevation of roughly 1,300 meters.

The Finish: a 21km climb (full details here) and in two parts, the first 14km to the ski resort of Méribel is hard going with plenty of 7-% sections from the start but all on a classic ski station road, it’s wide and engineered. Once above of Méribel everything changes as the race switches onto a cycle path that was created in 2019 and is unlike anything else. The TV cameras never capture the slope but you’ll see it’s narrow. Above all it’s irregular, at first it’s manageable but there’s a bend that turns into the woods and things get feral with a slope keeps changing, 20% for 50m, then flat, 12%, then a 6% breather and so on and it keeps doing this, the average gradient per kilometre tells us little. The path emerges out of the woods with a series of tight hairpins and the road becomes less erratic. The profile above misses the brief descent within the final 2km and then then it kicks up again with an 18% wall before the line. Today’s summit finish has both the usual 10-6-4 time bonuses but also double points for the mountains competition

The first three riders on the line gain time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds.

Stage 17 of Le Tour starts at 12.15 and the race is expected to finish around 17.20 – both are local times (CEST).

A tad lumpy then!

Who’s should we be looking out for?

The Contenders: Jumbo-Visma will be only too happy for a breakaway to go away, the Dutch team don’t want to risk a repeat of the Grand Colombier where Tadej Pogačar took a 10 second time bonus with his stage win. Half the bunch will know this and the question is whether a move can form early enough with the right composition of riders in order to start building a lead because they’ll need several minutes lead for the last climb. Today’s course is for the climbers, think Marc Soler (Movistar), Dani Martinez and Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling), Mikel Nieve and Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) and Dan Martin (Israel). All of these are riders suited to the finish but the first names bring guarantees about the form, the latter ones less so.

Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) is going well but the stage win is a big ask, if he can get in the break today the Madeleine is ideal for him to take points for the mountains competition.

Otherwise it’s difficult to look past Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) but how to pick between them? Pogačar won on the Grand Colombier, Roglič was superior on the Pas de Peyrol. The irregular sections of the Col de la Loze make life tough for Jumbo-Visma to control things but harder, not impossible.

Yesterday? Yesterday was a stunner, great pics at CyclingTips as ever.

Cheers for doing these @lunge.

I think today is definitely a day for watching live rather than the highlights.

Pogacar is guaranteed to attack, but will Roglic attack to try and get more time in case he needs a bigger gap for the TT or will he just sit and mark moves?

20% ! Will we be seeing some granny chainrings

I’ve ridden the road up to Meribel and that alone is a good climb, though as it says above, the gradient isn’t to bad, it’s just long. That part suits a Dumoulin type rider who can just TT up there.
However, the bit above Meribel sounds absolutely nuts. It’ll be fascinating to see who does what. Pogacar has to try something, as does anyone else who wants to win and not just finish on the podium (Uran? Porte?).

Well this has to be the day really doesn’t it… if anyone is going, then it has to be today they make their move.

“you only ride when you’re winning” ?

Not going to be a day for Bernal then…

20% ! Will we be seeing some granny chainrings

Possibly some big old cassettes up to 30 / 32T. There’s a stupidly steep climb in the Vuelta where the cycling media made much of Alberto Contador riding a 32T cassette.

Not mentioned in the inrng stuff, but i reckon Yates will try to animate the GC race on the final climb if he can. He sounded up for it in interviews and he can still get on the podium. Maybe I’m just being optimistic from a british perspective though.

Possibly some big old cassettes up to 30 / 32T. There’s a stupidly steep climb in the Vuelta where the cycling media made much of Alberto Contador riding a 32T cassette

that means ultegra oh the shame 😉

Looking forward to this one, I’ll try and watch some at work as it should be an explosive day, well it should be if anyone wants to remove Roglic.
A shame about Bernal but not unexpected after listening to his interview on the highlights show last night. I hope he recovers well.

A shame about Bernal but not unexpected after listening to his interview on the highlights show last night. I hope he recovers well.

He’s not looked the part for most of the middle week, poor guy.

Porte to just go crazy seeing as it’s his last tour as leader?

Can’t see this being another gc jv lead out sprint for the line

That profile looks horrible

what do you reckon, about 1430 uk time for the start of the madeleine climb.

i need to switch locations in the middle of a my afternoon session so i can watch it live.

have they pulled him (Bernal) to ride the Vuelta ?

what do you reckon, about 1430 uk time for the start of the madeleine climb.

@soobalias : the timing sheet has the Madeleine around 2.40pm and the final climb around 4.20pm UK time.

Porte to just go crazy seeing as it’s his last tour as leader?

This is his best Tour in years if he can just keep it upright for the remainder of the week!

that means ultegra oh the shame

It might be a surprise, but they often run Ultegra cassettes to up the bike weight to 6.9kg.

Yates today if he’s up for it, climbing to podium and hold for the TT. Pogecar to squeeze back 10 seconds, also for the TT. TDM to bash it about a bit after WVA has roughed them up first.

Definitely a live watch today.

Thomas De Gendt at the front for the rollout

It might be a surprise,

no it wasn’t

Well I don’t thing Thomas can win this stage. He’s just having a laugh surely?

will odious ride for Yates ?

He’s just having a laugh surely?

he’s still going for it 😀

he’s off solo 😀

the type of rider trying to get in the break suggests attacks on the Madeleine ?

will odious ride for Yates ?

Oh hilarious!
Have you got any other pathetically childish puns for any of the other teams…?

😀

I wonder if Sagan has more or less given up on the green jersey? Trentin still going for it but DQS have kind of got this nailed now.

could have done with an additional cat1 climb, this main road cruise is a mleh.

The prelude to it blowing to pieces!

Very strong break up the road, very strong

I do not really follow road racing but something in me really wants to see Alaphilipe win a stage. could he today?

These posts are really helpful to me . thanks

No, fraid not TJ.

He’ll crest this hill in the lead group, but that’s about it.

🙁 His efforts last year really endeared him to me. He seems to embody what we want the tour to be. Brio – is that the word?

There’s a stupidly steep climb in the Vuelta where the cycling media made much of Alberto Contador riding a 32T cassette

Pretty sure that was a local climb here, I did it the week after and it was a right bastard.

He could win it if this 4 all stay together to the top of the final climb. But the other 3 are stronger climbers this year (perhaps they weren’t last year) so will drop him before the top.

He seems to embody what we want the tour to be

AYe, you’ll get no argument from me… Him, Wout Van Aert and also Matteiu Van Der Poel, they’re what cycling is to me. Not the grind grind grind of the racing we’re seeing day in day out. Hirshi is another who’s coming into that sort of thing for me.

This is why i love watching the spring classics way way more than the TDF, don’t get me wrong, i’ll watch the Tour all day… but it’s not exciting the same way a Paris/Roubaix is.

He could win it if this 4 all stay together to the top of the final climb. But the other 3 are stronger climbers this year (perhaps they weren’t last year) so will drop him before the top.

Yeah but on this first major descent he’s WAY better than the other 3!

How did Matt Rendell ever get a job as a commentator

Traction index my arse – its like whispering Bob Harris does cycling

Pretty sure that was a local climb here, I did it the week after and it was a right bastard.

Angliru?

not a great road surface on that decent