On the 17th stage of the Tour de France 2024, the breakaways were in charge: Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) pulled away on the penultimate mountain, the Col du Noyer, and won ahead of Simon Yates (Team Jayco-AlUla) and Enric Mas (Movistar). The Olympic champion of the Tokyo 2021 road race has thus come full circle. Carapaz has now won stages at the Giro d'Italia, where he was the overall winner in 2019, the Vuelta a Espana and the Tour de France. He also wore the yellow jersey for one day on stage 4 of the Tour of France this year.
Remco Evenepoel catches up by seconds
In addition to the battle for the day's victory, the overall classification was also up for grabs. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked at the Col du Noyer and overtook Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) by a few seconds. Second and third in the classification came back on the descent. Evenepoel turned the tables on the final climb. The Belgian attacked, latched onto his team-mate Jan Hirt, who had previously been in the breakaway, and in the end took ten seconds out of Pogacar and twelve out of Vingegaard.
Tour de France 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 17
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) 4:06:13
- Simon Yates (Team Jayco-AlUla) +0:37
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +0:57
- Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:44
- Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +1:44
- Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) +2:36
- Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility) +2:38
- Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +2:39
- Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) +2:39
- Alex Aranburu (Movistar) +2:39
The current overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 70:21:27
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) +3:11
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +5:09
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +12:57
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +13:24
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +13:30
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +15:41
- Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +17:51
- Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) +18:15
- Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) +18:35
How the 17th stage of the Tour de France 2024 went
Before the start there was the first task for a German driver. Phil Bauhaus finished the Tour de France 2024 after his second place the day before. After the start, the wind kept the riders on their toes. For a short time, there were wind shifts. However, one of the favourites did not fall behind and the race situation calmed down again.
Fierce battle for the breakaway group
The battle for places in the breakaway then began. There were numerous attacks. The Visma | Lease a Bike team in particular was desperate to have riders in the group and repeatedly sent Wout van Aert on the offensive.
Four men eventually pulled away by almost a minute. Tiesj Benoot was one of the riders from the Vingegaard team. He was joined by Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Uno-X Mobility).
Further tasks on the 17th stage
While the race raged at the front, other riders dropped out: Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) abandoned the Tour of France.
Battle for the green jersey: Biniam Girmay holds his own
The peloton flew apart in the meantime and was not satisfied with the breakaway group. The sprint continued until the intermediate sprint 63 kilometres before the finish. At the front, Cort Nielsen was the first to cross the line. Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty) took eleven points from the peloton ahead of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and thus extended his lead by one point to 33 points in the battle for the green jersey.
Large chasing pack
Shortly after the sprint, a huge chasing group broke away from the peloton. 48 riders were reported in the meantime, but they posed no threat to the overall standings. The best placed rider was Simon Yates (Team Jayco-AlUla), 35:09 minutes behind.
The chasing group fell apart on the climb to the Col Bayard (2nd category). Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) left their former companions behind. At the foot of the Col du Noyer (1st category), it was the turn of the two Frenchmen. Behind them, Simon Yates tried to close the 40-second gap with a crowbar, which the Brit managed to do. He also had Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) and Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) in tow.
Carapaz outpaces Yates
Yates did not stay with his rivals for long and attacked. Nobody wanted to counter the attack of the mountain specialist directly. Only after a delay did Carapaz and Williams follow suit, although the Brit was unable to follow the Ecuadorian for long. Carapaz closed the gap to Yates and the two formed the leading duo until two kilometres below the summit of the Col du Noyer. There, Carapaz attacked in a section with a gradient of up to 14 per cent and distanced Yates. The Olympic champion had opened up a 15-second lead at the mountain classification.
The peloton entered the Col du Noyer only eight minutes after the leaders. Although the pace was brisk, it initially looked like a relatively relaxed day for the classification riders before Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) once again threw a spark into the powder keg.
Attack by Tadej Pogacar
Shortly before the crest, the yellow jersey wearer attacked. Jonas Vingegaard was unable to follow and even lost contact with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step). Evenepoel crossed the Col du Noyer around ten seconds behind Pogacar, a good five seconds ahead of Vingegaard, who latched onto his team-mate Christophe Laporte at the summit, who was in the chasing group for a long time. The duo caught up with Evenepoel on the descent, and the three of them also managed to catch up with Pogacar again.
Remco Evenepoel sets itself apart
Evenepoel attacked on the final climb and was able to break away from Vingegaard and Pogacar. The Belgian caught up with his team-mate Jan Hirt, who acted as a relay station. However, Vingegaard also caught up with two other helpers: Tiesj Benoot and Wout van Aert. In the end, Evenepoel gained ten seconds on Pogacar, who distanced Vingegaard by two seconds with a brilliant final sprint.
Richard Carapaz wins 17th stage
By the time the battle for the overall classification was raging, the day's victory had long since been decided. Carapaz extended his lead over Yates to 37 seconds and celebrated his first victory in the Tour de France. Behind him, Enric Mas (Movistar) crossed the finish line in third place.
