Tour de France 2022 Favourites stage 17: Puncher in the high mountains

image: Cor VosA mountain stage of merely 130 kilometres with four cols in the last 76 kilometres. To pep things up the last 500 metres rise at 13% to the line. So the stage winner has to be a versatile climber, good at both long ascents and short uphill kickers. (Slideshow route/profile)

First things first. Are we going to see the stage winner emerge from the breakaway, or will it be a GC rider? It depends largely on the place where the breakaway etablishes itself. If it’s early on, there is unlikely to be a good climber on board, as the first hour of racing takes place on the flat. The riders then enter the Col d’Aspin and, obviously, you need climbing legs to get away from the main group on that 12 kilometres ascent at 6.5%. Which ups the chances for the breakaway to be successful.

After the Aspin the riders continue to the Hourquette d’Ancizan (8.2 kilometres at 5.1%) and Col de Val-Louron-Azet (10.7 kilometres at 6.8%) before the finish climb kicks in. The road to Peyragudes goes up for 8 kilometres with an average gradient of 7.8%. And it’s really the last part that’s going to do the damage. First 1 kilometre at 9%, then it levels out to 6% before the last 500 metres are insane with an average gradient of 13%.

How the race unfolds depends on the GC. So, we’ll update this article during the Tour de France.

Favourites 17th stage 2022 Tour de France

*** Michael Woods, Giulio Ciccone, Thibaut Pinot, Warren Barguil
** Tadej Pogacar, Primoz Roglic, Aleksandr Vlasov, Adam Yates
* Romain Bardet, Nairo Quintana, David Gaudu, Jonas Vingegaard

Another interesting read: route 17th stage 2022 Tour de France.