Back to the mountains we go on Stage 17 of the 2024 Tour de France, with a 178km route commencing in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux and concluding at SuperDévoluy.
These are the southern Alps and although the SuperDévoluy climb that will be used as the stage finale has not previously featured in the Tour de France it has been visited by the Critérium du Dauphiné, with Samuel Sanchez winning a stage there in 2013 and Steve Cummings achieving a victory there in 2017.
As the race homes in on the Alps, there are no significant obstacles crossing the Drôme. The tests beyond that, though, could well encourage the formation of a large breakaway group, whose members will have a chance to shine, assuming they can deal with the climbs in the final 40 kilometres.
We will get a clearer idea of this on the ascent of the Col Bayard, although the selection will intensify on the Col du Noyer (7.5km at 8.4%), with the final battling coming on the approach to the Superdévoluy ski station. It’s a medium mountain stage, meaning there could be more candidates for victory than just the Tour’s elite climbers.
Both Yellow Jersey Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and the man in third place in the GC Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) previewed the stage by saying they expect it to be a day for the breakaway. Nonetheless, there could still be attacks at the top end of the GC on the cards on the final climbs, irrespective of the status of the breakaway.
Likewise the overall favourites will also be highly alert to each other in the final sector to the SuperDevoluy finish, where vital seconds could be won or lost.
