Lights

Comments

Tour de France stage 17 report: Vingegaard takes complete control as Gall wins from the break

Pogačar cracks on the Col de la Loze.

Jonas Vingegaard finishes stage 17 of the Tour de France. Photo: Tim van Wichelen/Cor Vos © 2023

Dane Cash
by Dane Cash 19.07.2023 Photography by
Cor Vos
More from Dane +

Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) took complete control of the general classification at the Tour de France on Wednesday as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) cracked spectacularly on the Col de la Loze, while Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) soared to his first Tour stage win out of the break.

Gall took the day’s win ahead of Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) with Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) in third. What had been such a close Tour de France GC battle just a few days ago is now a one-horse race as, when all was said and done, Vingegaard had extended his GC lead over Pogačar to a massive 7:35. Third-placed Adam Yates got closer to his UAE teammate Pogačar on the day but is now more than 10 minutes back on the race leader.

Brief results

  1. Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) 4:49:08
  2. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) @ 0:34
  3. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) @ 1:38
  4. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) @ 1:52
  5. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) @ 2:09

General classification

  1. Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 67:57:51
  2. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ 7:35
  3. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) @ 10:45
  4. Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 12:01
  5. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) @ 12:19
Felix Gall wins stage 17 of the Tour de France. Photo: Tim van Wichelen/Cor Vos © 2023

Brief analysis

With Gall leading the way for AG2R, Ben O’Connor was on teammate duty on the day, working hard until he pulled the parachute and began pedaling squares. A roadside fan offered him pizza, but he was uninterested.

Quotes of the day

In his post-race interview, an emotional Gall needed a moment to put his feelings into words, saying that he was mostly “grateful” for everything that had happened.

“I don’t know what to say. This whole year has been incredible,” said Gall, who took his first WorldTour win last month at the Tour de Suisse. “To do so well in the Tour de France, and to win the queen stage is incredible. I just want to say thank you to the team. They have given me so much.”

Pogačar, meanwhile, gave a blunt assessment of his struggles. Asked to describe how he felt, he simply said, “Fucked.” He went on to note that he had even felt “much better” on last year’s 11th stage at the Tour, where Vingegaard had delivered a decisive blow en route to that year’s win.

“Today was one of my worst days on the bike,” Pogačar said.

Further reading

Did we do a good job with this story?