Stage 17 of the Tour will answer all the outstanding GC questions with over 38km of climbing over two colossal HC climbs. It is this years queen stage and will provide clarity as to who will end up in the yellow jersey come Sunday.
Jumbo Visma’s Primoz Roglic currently enjoys a 40 second lead over fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogocar with both being by far the strongest riders in the race.
We believe that come the days decisive climb on the Meribel Col De Loze it will be GC shootout to decide stage honours.
On the back of Monday’s rest day allied to letting the breakaway run free yesterday all GC teams will be fully ready for the test ahead and capable of hauling back any early breakaways. Another factor to consider is that there is 80km of flat at the start of the stage making it even more difficult for strong climbers to get away.
All in all, we are quite confident that the stage win rests with the GC contenders. Of those many have struggled to show their top form in the past week – Quintana, Martinez, Lopez and even Landa have been left in the wake of the two Slovenians. Egan Bernal has quit the race due to a back injury making it look a shoot out between the two at the head of the market.
Our ante post pick Pogocar has been lively and aggressive in numerous finishes but he has struggled to distance Roglic at any time. Roglic has by far the strongest team in the race and it looks like he has the artillery to keep tabs on the young pretender until he feels ready to attack. We can see that happening with 3 or 4 kilometres to go and believe it may well be the decisive move in this year’s tour.
Jumbo have had two recon trips to the Meribel in preparation and will no doubt have a plan in place to help their team leader claim a memorable victory.
With Roglic double the price of Pogocar he looks an incredible price to achieve this. to put it in perspective, if this was Chris Froome or Bradley Wiggins in his position you would be looking at slightly bigger than evens.
All in all he looks set to confirm his supremacy by claiming the toughest stage of the tour.
Recommendations:
Primoz Roglic to win Stage 17 of the Tour, 2pts win, 4/1
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