Geraint Thomas of Team Sky has extended his overall lead in the Tour de France to a second shy of 2 minutes after finishing third on today’s short but scintillating Stage 17 in the Pyrenees, won by Movistar’s Nairo Quintana.
The Welshman arrived at the summit of the Col du Portet 47 seconds behind the Colombian, with Dan Martin of UAE Team Emirates taking second place on the stage, 28 seconds behind the stage winner.
Defending champion Chris Froome, who on the final climb chased down an attack from LottoNL Jumbo’s Primoz Roglic – whether riding for himself or in support of Thomas remains unclear for now – slips to third overall, leapfrogged in the general classification by Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin.
More to follow
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29 thoughts on “Tour de France Stage 17: Geraint Thomas extends lead as Nairo Quintana wins”
Froome overtaken by Dumoulin.
Froome overtaken by Dumoulin… interesting!
What happens now…? Will Thomas hold out? Will Froome launch another spectacular solo? Will he be allowed to? Will Dumoulin get close enough to the yellow jersey to overhaul his lead in the time trial?
Quite an exciting last few days…
Can’t believe I’ve just heard
Can’t believe I’ve just heard Jonathan Edwards tell us all about tomorrow’s stage “T’Pow”!
Impressive stuff from G!
Impressive stuff from G!
That stage was brilliant though, the grid start was pointless. Getting rid of the few hours of boring nothingness made for a much more watchable race 🙂
Personally i think Dumoulin
Personally i think Dumoulin emptied himself to get time on Froome and in the hope of getting time on Thomas, which worked on Froome but not G so it will be interesting to see how much both him and Froome have left in their legs come Friday’s stage to battle for 2nd place.
If Thomas still has 2 minutes at the TT neither Froome nor Dumoulin will make that up as its only a short one and Thomas is looking really strong.
Big fan of this Julian
Big fan of this Julian Alaphilippe after yesterday and today! What a nice guy
Enhorabuena Nairo! Te lo
Enhorabuena Nairo! Te lo merece!
Geraint grabbed by a fan.
Geraint grabbed by a fan.
Froomedog collered by le plod on the way back down.
I don’t trust Brailsfraud and the rest, but let the fuckers race in peace until they are caught.
Would Geraint have been able
Would Geraint have been able to stay with Nairo if he’d had to?
No.
don simon wrote:
you know this for a fact how, so far it’s been the opposite way around or have you only just starting watching the race today?
GT doesn’t need to chase, he’s measuring his effort for the whole race not one stage. Quintana wasn’t able to stay with Thomas on several occasions during this tour so just because once he gets a few seconds back (most of which he’ll lose in the TT) doesn’t validate your statement of Thomas not being able to stay with NQ on todays stage, he and the team chose not to, they look at the bigger picture like all those in the know do.
BehindTheBikesheds wrote:
You really are an arrogant prick, aren’t you?
don simon wrote:
Pot. Kettle. Black.
Crampy wrote:
You struggle with the 3rd conditional too, my little lap dog?
You too, dolly 5 posts?
Well that’s the Sky running
Well that’s the Sky running order sorted out.
Still lots booing going on. Seems to be the national pastime.
Still lots booing going on.
>>Still lots booing going on. Seems to be the national pastime.
And which nation might that be?
ErnieC wrote:
Tour de …..
Fill in the missing country. Same place where the cycling media hate British cycling.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
….Yorkshire
dreamlx10 wrote:
….Yorkshire— ErnieC
He said Country, not County. And to be fair, they probably still have’t forgotten the War of the Roses up there, so consider themselves an independent republic in all but government. And currency. And language (well, kind of)
madcarew wrote:
He said Country, not County. And to be fair, they probably still have’t forgotten the War of the Roses up there, so consider themselves an independent republic in all but government. And currency. And language (well, kind of)— ErnieC
You can always tell a Yorkshireman…but you can’t tell him much.
Excuse ME, Don Simon, I must
Excuse ME, Don Simon, I must take issue,
Quintana has unfortunately shown himself to be a bit of a damp squib over the years – although a fantastic climber, he’s very rarely taken the initiative and attacked, seemingly happy to follow the leader on far too many occasions. And in this tour he’s clearly not got the legs – he’s just not a contender, sorry but it’s true.
On the other hand, TD has been exceptional. He appears to have acquired some tactical nous since the Giro, and frankly, if he was in team Sky as a leader, he would easily be the equal of Geraint or Chris. I mean, look at him. World TT champion, not a natural climber, but massively impressive – if he had a strong team to support him, I really think he would be a double grand tour winner this year. In fact, if he was tactically astute, he very likely would have won the Giro despite not having a strong team behind him.
Geraint is almost certainly as good a cyclist as Chris Froome, but if he’s not the designated leader he’ll never win – team politics.
Just saying.
Excuse ME, Don Simon, I must
Excuse ME, Don Simon, I must take issue,
Quintana has unfortunately shown himself to be a bit of a damp squib over the years – although a fantastic climber, he’s very rarely taken the initiative and attacked, seemingly happy to follow the leader on far too many occasions. And in this tour he’s clearly not got the legs – he’s just not a contender, sorry but it’s true.
On the other hand, TD has been exceptional. He appears to have acquired some tactical nous since the Giro, and frankly, if he was in team Sky as a leader, he would easily be the equal of Geraint or Chris. I mean, look at him. World TT champion, not a natural climber, but massively impressive – if he had a strong team to support him, I really think he would be a double grand tour winner this year. In fact, if he was tactically astute, he very likely would have won the Giro despite not having a strong team behind him.
Geraint is almost certainly as good a cyclist as Chris Froome, but if he’s not the designated leader he’ll never win – team politics.
Just saying.
Sorry . mouse heavy
Sorry . mouse heavy
Now now y’all, let’s not
Now now y’all, let’s not spoil a nice discussion on a brilliant tour with the usual bickering instead of debating.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Beecho wrote:
Petty bickering like this reflects the standard of debate now on road.cc and it puts people off the site. It’s only a couple of posters too (well, one really). I’ll check back in when he’s fucked off. These guys usually get bored after a while..
700c, this place seems quite
700c, this place seems quite quaint compared to cyclingnews. I had a look over there and it’s like cycling’s version of the Daily Mail comments section. People are really kicking the shit out of each other over there.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
And I just can’t wrap my head around it, this inability from a fair few to disagree but stay civil.
It’s horrible to think it, but we meet enough dickheads (on and off the road), and read/see/hear enough claptrap to know there’s a sizeable anti-cyclist chunk of the population out there. Surely we’re here to essentially drink from the same cup, but no, it’s “Judean People’s Front? Fuck off!”
Even when discussing socks…
I think Dumoulin might be
I think Dumoulin might be fortunate in the fact that there’s a sprint stage today, I have a feeling that if it was another mountain day he could pay for his effort today, he did look like he was burying himself (then again he often looks like that) He’s been incredibly impressive though, certainly made some of the other GT contenders look weak by comparison considering he rode so hard at the Giro.
Unless he’s going to have a catastrophic day I can’t see G being caught, and I’m sure Sky will have been making sure he’s been fuelling properly in the stages, nearly every clip of him that wasn’t going full gas he seemed to be eating something yesterday. Dumoulin may beat him in the TT, but to take the kind of time he needs against someone who’s a very handy TTer and in amazing form is probably beyond him, it’s not like it’s Quintana or Bardet in the lead.
Kudos for Nario yesterday, he
Kudos for Nario yesterday, he was looking unstoppable, however I can’t shake the fact that every time I look at him or hear him speak he looks like he’s carved from wood and his voice is just soooo monotone..he sure is one boring bugger.
Alaphilipe is the star of this TdF IMO, he’s been on FIRE! I’m darn sure his wages will be going up rapidly (as will all the QS boys after this year!)
Geraint is on the grand tour form of his life. As someone said on a podcast or tv or somwhere, no-one in the peloton has a bad word to say about him, he’s always comes across so honest and genuine. I really hope he can defend the yellow jersey until Paris, what a result that’d be.
(If G does make it to Paris, and Froome supports him as he has done thus far, will people think better of Froome I wonder?)
Froome could still launch an attack on the penultimate day… it could be justified within the team to get the jump on Dumolin going into the TT.
Sky have dominated the past couple of weeks, they really are all proven superstars (apart from Moscon, who clearly has no self control).
The only thing that can stop
The only thing that can stop G now is a total cock up on the road – crash, mechanical, or an echelon today.
Friday is a classic Sky power climb/train day, so if they go by the book they should be fine.
Saturday the World TT Champion gets his turn, but there’s not a hope of him clawing back 2 mins (about 4 secs per km) on the current UK National TT Champion.
Frome will not launch a Giro attack because a) he’s already said he won’t and b) he knows it would be a PR disaster for his current position in the public’s eye. He’s not stupid.
I think Froome will go for it
I think Froome will go for it on the last climb just to get second place back, look at the Giro he took 90+ secs off Dumoulin on the 2 downhill sections on that historic day,
Dumoulin will have to respond there is nothing else he can do and G will just sit in his wheel. Dumoulin is a fantastic TT’er but over 30 odd kms he wont bring back G especially if he’s had to chase down Froome.
Better still would be Bernal attacking on the last climb to get the young riders jersey off Latour, now that would really piss the French off