STAGE 17 REPORT:
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| Stage 17 on the map |
124.5K From
Saint-Gaudens to Pla d'Adet
Weather: Sunny, 80
f; light wind
The 17th stage of
the 2014 Tour De France was dubbed the queen stage of the race. It began with
about 50k of relatively flat roads.
The final 75k featured virtually no flat roads. What it did feature were
four big mountains for the peloton to climb. First, three category-1 climbs:
the 1292-meter high Col du Portillon, the 1569m Col de Peyresourde, the 1580m
Col de Val Louron Azet; and then came the finish, 1654m up on top of the Hors Categorie Pla d'Adet.
An 8-man break got
away early, without the top mountain jersey contenders. Joaquim Rodriguez
tried, but failed to get into the break again. As a result, his Katusha team chased hard to try and bridge
the gap to the leaders before they reached the mountains.
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| Stage 17 profile, with four big Pyrenean climbs |
The 8 escapees
were: Gautier, Slagter, Elmiger,
Arashiro, Edet, Kadri, Voigt, and
Paulinho. They held a lead of one minute by the intermediate sprint point
at km 31. Kadri took the INT ahead of Elmiger and Paulinho...
