Tour de France 2016 Favourites stage 17: Battle for overall victory to ignite

In stage 17 of the Tour de France it's all about the last 31 kilometres. Basically this is a two stage ascent, leading from an elevation of 500 metres to 2,000 metres with a 7 kilometres drop halfway. With two more mountain stages and and uphill ITT left, we can expect the GC guys to roar. (Slideshow route/profile)

First Col de la Forclaz, a steady 13 kilometres climb at 7.9%, before the drag up to Finhaut-Emosson comes with a more erratic profile. At 10.4 kilometres, the average gradient of this climb is 8.4%, yet the section under the top introduces double digits. The last full kilometre is 10%, while the final 400 metres to the line are marked by a grade at over 12%.

With stage 14 an important quartet of races begins – three mountain stages and one mountainous ITT. We can safely assume the GC men to detonate the fireworks. Being down on Froome, there is only one way to go if they want the threaten the yellow jersey: attack!

Obviously, a race within a race is a likely scenario. We can safely assume KOM-contenders De Gendt and Majka will be up to something, too.

Favourites 17th stage Tour de France 2016:

*** Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana, Bauke Mollema
** Richie Porte, Fabio Aru, Rafal Majka, Adam Yates, Thomas De Gendt
* Tejay van Garderen, Romain Bardet, Daniel Martin, Serge Pauwels, Wilco Kelderman