{"id":17801,"date":"2025-07-23T11:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17801\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T11:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T11:02:13","slug":"stage-17-offers-perhaps-last-sprint-chance-at-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17801\/","title":{"rendered":"Stage 17 offers perhaps last sprint chance at Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The clock is ticking for the fastmen. As the Tour de France heads into its decisive Alpine phase, Stage 17 could be the final lifeline for the sprinters.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s 160-km route from Boll\u00e8ne to Valence is a transitional stage on paper\u2014but one that offers real opportunity. Two minor climbs punctuate the opening two-thirds of the day. That is, the Col du Pertuis (3.7 km at 6.6 per cent) at 66 km, and the Col de Tartaiguille (3.6 km at 3.5 per cent) at 117.<\/p>\n<p>From there, the profile flattens out, giving sprint teams roughly 40 km to get organized and hunt down the break.<\/p>\n<p>It may be the last proper bunch sprint of the race. While the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es traditionally delivers a drag race, this year\u2019s finale includes multiple laps of the Montmartre climb\u2014an added wrinkle that could undo the pure sprinters. If they want a stage win, hump day is the day.<\/p>\n<p>If it comes down to a proper bunch gallop, look to another duel between Lidl\u2013Trek\u2019s Jonathan Milan and Soudal\u2013QuickStep\u2019s Tim Merlier. And Milan needs the win\u2014not just for his palmar\u00e8s, but for his kit. More on that below.<\/p>\n<p>Stage 16: Ventoux nasty as ever<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday\u2019s summit finish on Mont Ventoux belonged to the breakaway. <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/the-112th-tour-gets-its-first-french-winner-on-legendary-mont-ventoux\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Valentin Paret-Peintre<\/a> delivered France\u2019s first stage win of this year\u2019s Tour, outsprinting Ben Healy for a memorable victory atop the storied climb. The GC contenders played it cagey\u2014Tadej Poga\u010dar added two more seconds on Jonas Vingegaard, remain locked in a two-man fight for yellow. Although the duo did come close to spoiling the break\u2019s day!<\/p>\n<p>Poga\u010dar is also inching closer to a feat achieved only once in men\u2019s pro cycling: winning all three jerseys\u2014yellow, polka dot and green. Milan is watching closely, with the world champion now just over 10 points behind. The Italian will need max points on Wednesday if he hopes to hang on to the green jersey that traditionally belongs to the sprinters.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cyclingmagazine.ca\/sections\/news\/soooois-pogacar-going-to-win-yellow-green-and-polka-dots\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Soooo\u2026is Poga\u010dar going to win yellow, green and polka dots?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Stage 17 should be fast\u2014so the sprinters\u2019 teams will need to keep things tight if they want to set up a bunch finish.<\/p>\n<p>You can catch all the action on <a href=\"https:\/\/flosports.sjv.io\/c\/6129470\/2005798\/24751?utm_campaign=generalaffiliate&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flobikes.com%2Fsignup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FloBikes.com<\/a>. And as always, check in with Canadian Cycling Magazine for a detailed report on what went down.<\/p>\n<p>The Tour may be entering its final stretch\u2014but with several tough stages still to come, it\u2019s far from over.<\/p>\n<p>Poga\u010dar has looked untouchable, but all it takes is one \u201cI\u2019m gone, I\u2019m dead\u201d day to change that. That may seem unlikely, but Vingegaard won\u2019t stop swinging. The Visma\u2013Lease a Bike rider launched four separate attacks on Ventoux, proving he\u2019s still got plenty of fight in those little legs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The clock is ticking for the fastmen. As the Tour de France heads into its decisive Alpine phase,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[1421,49,48,635,5900,15413,82,1422],"class_list":["post-17801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2025-tour-de-france","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-jonathan-milan","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}