Tour de France: Quintana wins short stage 17 atop Col du Portet

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Nairo Quintana (Movistar) won stage 17 of the Tour de France on Wednesday, attacking on the final climb and riding alone to the summit of Col du Portet for his first Tour stage win in five years.

Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) finished second, 28 seconds behind, while overall race leader Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) fought off all challengers on the final climb to finish third at 47 seconds and keep his yellow jersey. Four-time champion Chris Froome saw his chances for a fifth win fade in the final kilometres as he finished 1:35 down on Quintana.

"It was a hard day, but we'd prepared well for it," Quintana said at the finish. "It went as exactly as we'd planned. We had Valverde and Soler up front, and their riding helped shake out the peloton. We knew it was a stage for pure climbers, and we showed our strength.

"I had some difficult moments in the first part of this Tour and lost some time, but I still felt strong and had the energy to finish the race on a high," Quintana said. "I usually improve in the third week of the Tour, and it's going that way."

Quintana attacked with Martin after teammate Marc Soler set the pace in the peloton at the bottom of the final climb. The Colombian quickly dropped Martin and then steadily swept up riders from the day's earlier moves. Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) initially stayed with Quintana as they sped past solo leader Tanel Kangert (Astana), but the Pole eventually lost contact with just over 6km remaining.

Froome, meanwhile, benefited from the efforts of 21-year-old teammate Egan Bernal, who set the pace in the yellow jersey group over the final kilometres until the four-time champion cracked and lost the pace. The young Colombian sat up and waited, but Froome could not match attacks from Dumoulin and then Roglic, who were unable to dispatch Thomas.

Thomas now leads Dumoulin in the general classification by 1:59, while Froome dropped to third, another 32 seconds back. Roglic is fourth at 2:47, while Quintana moved from eighth to fifth at 3:30.

The Colombian stage winner said he wanted to win for his fans back home.

"All the support I've had from everyone, as well as my family and friends, really helped me today," Quintana said. "We were a bit down in the last days, so we needed this win. It's a wonderful day today."

How it happened

The 65km 17th stage from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Saint-Lary-Soulan always promised fireworks, and it delivered from the starting gun on Wednesday. After lining up in the Tour's first-ever Formula 1-type grid start by GC ranking, the riders started climbing immediately on the category 1 Col de Peyresourde/Montée de Peyragudes, reaching the 1,645m summit just 15km into the day.

A quick descent into Loudenvielle led to the category 1 Col de Val Louron-Azet at 37km. from there, another long descent took the riders to the final gruelling climb, the hors category Col du Portet, the highest peak of the Tour at 2,215m on a road that was only paved just a few weeks before the Tour.

As expected, the attacks started immediately on the Col de Peyresourde, with 22 riders moving clear of the Team Sky-led peloton. Astana's Tanel Kangert and Cofidis' Nicolas Edet set off ahead of a 20-rider chase that included, among others, Alejandro Valverde and Movistar teammate Marc Soler, Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) with teammate Mikel Nieve, and Julian Alaphlippe (Quick-Step Floors) in the polka dot jersey.

The mountains leader jumped away from the chase with Kristijan Durasek (UAE Team Emirates) and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) in a bridging attempt to the duo up front. The trio swept up Edet first as the Cofidis couldn't hold Kangert's pace. They immediately dropped Edet and set off for the lone leader.

Further down the road, Soler was setting a pace that started splintering the large chase group, and chase 2 was quickly down to just 10 riders, including Soler, Valverde, Yates, Herrada, Gregor Mühlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Omar Fraile (Astana), Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), Dani Martinez (EF Education First-Drapac) and Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain-Merida).

Kangert crested the Peyresourde with 20 seconds over the chasing trio, 1:13 over the second chase group and 3:18 over the peloton. Alaphlippe's daring descending skills left Herrada behind as he and Durasek caught Kangert on the downhill.

Col de Val Louron-Azet

The lead trio carried more than a minute over the chase into the base of the day's second ascent, where Team Sky were neutralising multiple attacks on the lower slopes. Pierre Latour went to the front of the peloton for AG2R La Mondiale team leader Romain Bardet, setting a pace that had riders popping out of the back of the group, while Martinez upped the pace in the chase group and was soon riding with just Valverde, Majka, Pellizotti and Fraile in pursuit of the leaders.

Mühlberger clawed his way back to the chase group and immediately went to the front for Majka, closing the gap to the leaders to just 43 seconds over the top of the climb. Mühlberger's effort cost him dearly, however, as he cracked before the summit and nearly came to a stop on the side of the road. Majka went over the top with Valverde, Martinez, Pellizotti and Fraile, while the peloton, now led by Movistar's Soler, crested the climb 2:10 behind the leaders.

Alaphilippe put his descending skills to work again, dropping Durasek on the downhill while Kangert took big risks to keep the flying Frenchman in check.

Col du Portet

Alaphilippe and Kangert started the final 16km climb with a 1:10 gap over the chase and 2:35 to the peloton. The Frenchman cracked at the bottom of the climb, leaving Kangert to go on alone in search of stage glory. Valverde attacked the chase group and dropped Pellizotti, while Kangert started opening up his gap. Another effort from Valverde dropped everyone but Martinez and Majka.

Back in the peloton, Soler pressed the pace on the front, while Team Sky sat just behind keeping the Movistar rider in check. Martin then jumped away with Quintana, but Team Sky did not react and continued to tap out the tempo with Jonathan Castroviejo on the front.

Quintana distanced Martin and continued on alone, sweeping up earlier breakaway riders Yates, Navarro, Durasek and Alaphilippe, and then setting off for Valverde's group.

Roglic jumped out of the bunch with 13.5km to go and was quickly marked by Froome. The Slovenian set the pace with Froome tucked in his slipstream, while Dumoulin went to the front of the peloton in pursuit.

The pace whittled the Dumoulin-led yellow jersey group to Thomas, Bardet, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Mikel Landa (Movistar) and Bernal, and they soon had Roglic and Froome back under control.

Further up the road, Quintana joined Valverde's group as Kangert continued on alone at the head of affairs. Valverde and Quintana dropped all but Majka and whittled Kangert's lead down to a minute with 11km to go, while Dan Martin was at 1:10 and the yellow jersey group was 1:40 back.

Valverde couldn't hold Quintana's pace and lost contact with his teammate and Majka, who closed to within 30 seconds of the leader with 9km remaining. Martin passed Valverde and had Quintana and Majka in sight as the gap to Kangert continued to come down quickly.

Quintana and Majka caught and dropped Kangert with 8.5km to go to form a new lead duo at the front of the race, with Martin lagging 15 seconds back and the yellow jersey group at 1:02. Quintana set the pace up front as Majka was happy to follow, while Team Sky continued to power the chase for Thomas and Froome.

Majka cracked with 6.4km remaining, leaving the Colombian on the front alone with more than a minute back to the Wout Poels-led yellow jersey group of nine riders. Bardet lost contact with that group as Martin reeled in Majka further up the road.

Kruijswijk put in a dig with just under 5km to go, and the acceleration put Poels and Valverde out of the yellow jersey group. Team Sky's Bernal then took up the chase, followed in order by Thomas, Froome, Dumoulin, Roglic and Landa. Bernal quickly brought Kruijswijk back into the fold, and the Thomas group then swept up Majka with 3km to go, leaving just Quintana and Martin up the road.

Roglic attacked under the 3km banner, but Bernal easily marked the move although it distanced Landa and Froome. Bernal recognised the situation and sat up, fading back to pace the four-time Tour champion.

Dumoulin sensed the opportunity and went next, dragging Thomas, Roglic and Kruijswijk with him as Bernal waited for Froome. Roglic accelerated in turn, opening a small gap that Thomas had to close down while Dumoulin struggled and Kruijswijk also dropped back.

With 1km remaining, the finishing order was pretty much set. Quintana had 35 seconds on Martin and 53 seconds on the yellow jersey group of Thomas, Roglic, and Dumoulin. Kruijswijk was fighting to get back on terms and Froome was struggling lower on the climb, led by Bernal.

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