Stage 17

The road

How it was won

1. 179 km to go

   Over the Mosses into the Rhône

   The long Swiss approach to the day's double whammy passes quietly, the break holding its rope while Astana marshal the bunch for what is to come.

2. 218 km to go

   The Forclaz strips the field

   The first half of a 31km sting splits the break and shakes the peloton down to forty riders. Sagan sits up and drifts back; Tejay van Garderen is dropped with 19km to go and is in serious trouble.

3. 39 km to go

   Zakarin goes past them all

   Pantano and Majka lead onto the 10.4km wall to the dam, but Ilnur Zakarin comes up from behind, catches them and rides straight past. He suffers like a man being taken apart, and he keeps going.

4. 45 km to go

   Poels shuts everything down

   Valverde lifts the pace and fades; Dan Martin kicks with five kilometres left. Wout Poels closes both, riding what may be the strongest stage of any domestique in the race.

5. 51 km to go

   Porte jumps, Froome pounces

   Inside the final kilometre Richie Porte gets out of the saddle and even Poels cannot close it. Froome bridges across himself, kicks once more, and Quintana is left behind again on a climb that was supposed to suit him.

6. 6At the line

   Zakarin wins above Lac d'Emosson

   Ilnur Zakarin takes the stage eight minutes clear of the yellow jersey group, where Froome and Porte take seconds off everybody and Aru limits it to 19 to move up to eighth.

The result