Tour de France 2020 Favourites stage 17: Two monster climbs for mountain goats

The riders set off from Grenoble to pedal through the valley of the Isère en then the Arc River to Notre-Dame-du-Cruet. That’s where the Col de la Madeleine kicks in hard with 4 kilometres at 10%. Thereafter the inclination levels out a bit, but it never becomes easy. Far from it. The Madeleine is 17.1 kilometres long and the average gradient sits at 8.4%.

The riders descend back to the valley of the Isère to tackle the Col de la Loze in Brides-les-Bains. One could argue that the Loze is the mirror image of the Madeleine. The average gradient mostly hovers around 7 and 8%, but the last 4.5 kilometres go up at 10%.

With these giant ascents in the last part of the race a GC battle for the stage win would be on the cards. But is Jumbo-Visma willing to control the race to that extent? Could very well be that they are okay with a successful breakaway.

A bold scenario would be for Tom Dumoulin to attack and put pressure on Primoz Roglic’ rivals.

Favourites 17th stage 2020 Tour de France

*** Daniel Felipe Martínez, Miguel Ángel López
** Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar, Adam Yates, Mikel Landa
* Richie Porte, Enric Mas, Rigoberto Uran, Tom Dumoulin

Take a look at the route of the 17th stage on the Tour de France.