Stage 17

The road

How it was won

1. 1120 km to go

   The Alps open with a bang

   Attacks from the gun, riders shelled out the back on the Col des Lèques, and only on the descent does a move of twenty-seven finally get away — Porte, Pinot, Majka, Sagan, Urán and Geschke among them.

2. 265 km to go

   Contador tries, Movistar answer

   The bunch has eased after Westra's crash when Contador attacks with Mick Rogers. Movistar shut the Spaniard down; Rogers goes on alone and picks up Malori. Somewhere behind, the world champion Kwiatkowski climbs off.

3. 349 km to go

   Vaugrenard's revenge

   Fed up with Degenkolb and Sagan sitting on, Benoît Vaugrenard beats them both at the sprint with fifty kilometres to go. Simon Geschke, watching all this squabbling, quietly decides to roll the dice.

4. 422 km to go

   Col d'Allos, roof of the Tour

   Geschke goes over the highest point of the race first and takes the Souvenir Henri Desgrange while the breakaway blows itself apart behind him. In the yellow jersey group Astana wind it up and launch Nibali; only Froome, Contador, Valverde and Quintana can follow, and on the plunge down the far side Contador crashes and his Tour ends as a contest.

5. 5At the line

   Geschke holds on at Pra-Loup

   Talansky claws at him all the way up the last 6.2 kilometres and Simon Geschke has just enough for the biggest win of his career. Quintana and Froome ride away from Nibali and Valverde in the final kilometre and cross the line together — not a second gained.

The result