Tour de France 2023 - 17th stage | Wednesday, 19 July | Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc - Courchevel | 165.7 kilometres
Rolf Aldag's assessment of the 17th stage of the 2023 Tour de France: Explosive to the highest point
Hopefully the guys used their energy wisely yesterday, because this day is also crucial. I still remember well how Jan Ullrich caught up with Richard Virenque in the summer heat on the way to Courchevel in 1997 with the very strong help of Bjarne Riis and finally arrived at the top at the same time as him. That was a demonstration of power.
Today's stage plan is designed precisely for such scenarios. The Tour organisers have put together a classic Alpine ensemble with the Col des Saisies and Cormet de Roselend, a very difficult descent from the Cote du Longefoy and then the relentless route up the Col de la Loze. This is where the riders reach the highest point of the 2023 Tour de France and bonus points are awarded. Interestingly, a stage like this can be very boring if everyone rides stubbornly according to their values and the good climbers stay in the group. Or, and this is the trend of recent years, the top stars don't manage. Instead, they use their explosiveness to tear a hole at the end, especially on mountains like today, and put on a show.
Today I would keep a close eye on the sprinters in the gruppetto. I think this stage is the most dangerous when it comes to the fight against the time limit.
Schedule, TV coverage & live stream of the 17th stage of the Tour de France 2023
- Neutral start: 12:20 pm, sharp start 12:30 pm
- Estimated arrival time: between 17:03 and 17:45
- TV broadcast: ARD - from 14:10, Eurosport - from 12:10
- Live stream: ARD one, sportschau.de, GCN+, Discovery+, Eurosport
Our expert Rolf Aldag
As a professional cyclist, our expert Rolf Aldag rode the Tour de France ten times up to 2004; as manager and sporting director, he has led various top teams through France and will once again be in charge of the German team Bora-Hansgrohe as sporting director at the Tour de France this year. There are few people who can tell so vividly what can happen on the stages of a grand tour and within the peloton. For TOUR, the 54-year-old sports manager has once again scrutinised the elevation profiles and march tables of this year's Tour de France.
In his predictions, he names the teams and riders he sees at the front on each day, assesses the difficulties of the routes and says where he expects attacks from whom. Will there be a bunch sprint? Will a breakaway group make it to the finish? Aldag also assesses for TOUR what role each stage plays for the classification jerseys: The more coloured jerseys our expert assigns to a stage, the greater their significance for the respective classification. The yellow jersey symbolises the weight of the stage in the overall classification, the green jersey stands for the importance of the best sprinter in the points classification and the red dotted jersey for the mountain classification, i.e. for the best climber. With these first-hand predictions, you can follow the TV broadcasts well informed and with profit!
