Stage 17

The road

At the start

Bastille Day on the Col du Portet

The fourteenth of July, and a stage the French have had circled since the route was published: 113 flat kilometres out of Muret, then the Peyresourde, the Val Louron-Azet and the Col du Portet, at 2,215 metres the highest finish of this Tour. Pogačar leads Urán by 5:18 with Vingegaard, Carapaz and O'Connor behind. Vincenzo Nibali did not take yesterday's start.

How it was won

1. 149 km to go

   The mountains jersey ignites

   After three hours of flat roads the race finally hits the Peyresourde and Arkéa launch Quintana. Poels and Latour go with him and the quartet pulls the break's ten-minute cushion under six.

2. 229 km to go

   Perez alone

   Poels takes four more points at the summit to strengthen his polka dots. Perez and Godon reach the foot of the Col du Portet four minutes clear, but the peloton behind is thirty riders and closing fast.

3. 39 km to go

   Pogačar splits the Tour on the Portet

   Halfway up the highest summit finish of the race the yellow jersey accelerates, sweeps past the last of the breakaway, and detonates the group behind him. Only Vingegaard and Carapaz can live with it. Urán — second overall this morning — is dropped and drifts out of the podium places for good.

4. 42 km to go

   Two more digs, no answer

   Pogačar attacks at two kilometres and again a few hundred metres later, and for once cannot shake his companions. At 1.5km Carapaz, who has looked on the point of cracking for seven kilometres, suddenly comes back to him.

5. 5At the line

   Col du Portet

   Pogačar takes the stage at 2,215 metres from Vingegaard and Carapaz — his second win of the Tour, and confirmation that the podium behind him is now the only race left.

The result