Tour de France

Remco Evenepoel showed guts and determination as the peloton headed towards the Alps on stage 17 of the Grande Boucle for a day that had breakaway written all over it. One of the strongest riders of this Tour, the white jersey wearer was in the thick of the action in the last ten kilometers, when the action exploded in the favourites’ group, and thanks to a valiant effort he ended up taking time on all the other GC men and fortifying his third place overall.

The day was an intense one, attacks coming just moments after the peloton rolled through the neutral zone. The high pace and the sidewind split the bunch, but only for a couple of minutes, everything coming back together the moment the wind dropped. This didn’t stop the riders from travelling at more than 51km/h, as a breakaway was trying to take shape, but it took a lot of effort and countless attacks for a large group – that contained Soudal Quick-Step’s Jan Hirt – to go clear deep into the stage.

Behind, the peloton slowed down and allowed the escapees to open a massive nine-minute gap, but the speed went up again on the hard Col du Norey, a short but steep climb making its fifth appearance at the Tour de France. One kilometer from the top, the yellow jersey attacked, but Remco Evenepoel reacted and after an impressive effort on the stiff gradients and the subsequent descent, he linked up with him before others joined them.

This small group, featuring the first three men on the general classification, started the ascent of Superdévoluy around eight minutes behind Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who took the victory from the breakaway. Sensing an opportunity, Remco accelerated with two kilometers to go and put some daylight between him and the others as he joined Hirt, who was waiting for him up the road. The experienced Czech – eighth at this year’s Giro d’Italia – emptied himself in the service of the Belgian, who then took off just ahead of the red kite.

Remco pushed the pedal to the metal and continued to extend his lead, finishing ten respectively twelve seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), a result that puts him within two minutes on the second-placed rider on the standings while at the same time ensuring him a comfortable buffer over those trailing him.

“I knew the climbs of this stage, so I was pretty confident. When Tadej attacked my legs felt good and I reacted, did my best and joined him on the descent. Knowing that Jan was up the road, I attacked in the finale and bridged across, and he just left everything out there. I felt good and kept going, and even though I didn’t gain a lot of time, my main goal was to take time on the guys behind me in the GC, so I’m happy I did that. The team was tactically strong today, we are all motivated and we’ll try our best to keep this place on the podium”, Remco explained after the stage.

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images