After the dazzling victory of the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday in the only time trial of this 2023 edition, the Tour de France sets off on Wednesday to attack a “monster” during the 17th stage between Saint-Gervais and Courchevel, with the terrible Col de la Loze where the gaps could be huge in the event of failure, including for Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar. This is only the second time that the Grande Boucle will take this “Galibier of the 21st century”, made possible since the last seven kilometers from the altiport of Méribel were tarred a few months before the first passage of the Tour in 2020 .
The main information :
- 17th stage of the Tour de France this Wednesday between Saint-Gervais and Courchevel in the Alps
- According to Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour tracer, this is the “queen event” of this 2023 edition.
- The runners will notably have to climb the formidable Col de la Loze
- After his resounding success on Tuesday in the time trial, Jonas Vingegaard retains the yellow jersey
- The Dane is almost 2 minutes ahead of his Slovenian rival Tadej Pogacar
And it’s a real “monster” that the mountain gave birth to with a 28.1 km climb at 6% which becomes truly frightening in the last five kilometers at more than 10% on average on an irregular slope. An infernal series of bumps and small flat areas, a slide towards suffering.
“The queen stage of this Tour”
Approaching the summit, we even reach percentages of 24%, enough to practically fall backwards, at an altitude (2,304 m, highest point and Henri-Desgrange memory of this 110th edition) where the rare oxygen can make twist the brain. “It’s one of the most difficult climbs in the world”, summarizes Tadej Pogacar, who arrived third at the top three years ago, behind the Colombian winner Miguel Angel Lopez and his Slovenian compatriot Primoz Roglic.
The profile of this 17th stage
Credit: official Tour de France website
This time, the finish will not be judged at the top but 6.5 km lower, in Courchevel, after a hyper technical descent which led the organizers to install mattresses used during the World Ski Championships so as not to relive a drama like the one who won Gino Mäder on the Tour de Suisse a month ago. At the bottom of the descent, the ordeal will not be finished. There will still be about 500 meters at 18% to finish at the Courchevel altiport, the final difficulty of an incredibly difficult 165.7 km stage. “The hardest I would have done in my life”, even anticipates the French climber David Gaudu.
“It’s clearly the queen stage of this Tour. Already because it’s the one with the most elevation gain, 5,100 meters. And with the sequence of passes, I see a lot of failures in the last kilometers of Loze There, everyone will be in their place”, underlines Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour tracer.