Stage 17 of the Tour de France brought with it the final mountain top finish of this year’s race, setting up a devilish finish for the general classification contenders to slug it out. With a breakaway out front and Bahrain McLaren suspiciously policing the peloton for much of the day, the race came to a sizzle on the ghastly Col de la Loze. Miguel Angel Lopez capitalised on the steep gradients – topping out at a terrifying 24 percent! – to catapult himself to his first Tour de France stage win, and third place overall. Behind, Primoz Roglic rolled across the line 15 seconds later to extend his lead (and perhaps end RogPog) over Tadej Pogacar, who ceded an additional 15 seconds.
