Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) soloed to his first ever Tour de France stage victory with a long-range attack into Serre Chavalier. Roglic, who had been part of the early break, attacked on the final climb of the Col du Galibier and held of the combined might of the GC favourites to win stage 17 by over a minute.
Behind Roglic, the sprint for the minor places and bonus seconds was battled out between the general classification riders. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) tried to go long, moving ahead in the final few corners, but he didn’t have the legs to hold on. Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) surged past him on the line to take the six bonus seconds on offer and there was further frustration for the Frenchman as Chris Froome pipped him to the final bonus seconds in third place.
Those few inches on the line would prove crucial in the overall standings with Uran moving up to second overall, equal on time with Bardet. The pair now sits 27 seconds back on Froome with just one more major mountain stage ahead of Saturday’s time trial.
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Uran’s ascension of the overall standings was helped by the minor collapse of Fabio Aru (Astana). Aru lost touch with the group of favourites under a barrage of attacks on the Galibier and never saw them again. He fought valiantly, but still lost 30 seconds in the overall fight and has dropped off the podium and into fourth place.
Roglic almost saw his chances for the stage win disappear as the overall contenders did their best to maximise the damage to Aru. It was only when the Italian champion looked almost certain of not returning that the rate of chase reduced and Roglic was able to push on for the win.
The LottoNl-Jumbo rider attacked with just under five kilometres to the top of the Galibier. He quickly distanced his companions, which had included Alberto Contador after the Spaniard launched his own long-range attack on the Col de la Croix de Fer. Roglic had more than a minute at the top of the Galibier and a very smooth descent helped him to near enough maintain that lead.
How it happened
Contador goes long
Team Sky takes control
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