Tour de France 2022: stage 17 – live updates! | Tour de France

67km to go: We are 4km from the top of the Col d’Aspin, with Pinot and Lutsenko still hanging on in front, and that big chasing group now 50 seconds clear of the peloton. The man in polka dots, Simon Geschke, is among them, as is Rigoberto Urán.

70km to go: Another pair of riders try to make a move – Thibaut Pinot and Alexey Lutsenko power up the road, followed by a group of chasers.

“The Victoria Line is named after Victoria Pendleton,” honks Kieran.

72km to go: Owain Doull, an Olympic gold medallist on the track in 2016, was briefly out on his own as Boivin dropped back – but he is quickly caught and we’re back in one group, strung out along the foothills of this first climb.

“The jerseys are only as varied as the parcours,” notes Gary Naylor. “Sprinters need more opportunities next year and time trials need a bit more significance too.”

Robin Lynch points out that the green jersey hasn’t always been won by out-and-out sprinters. The roll of honour includes “all-rounders like Sean Kelly, Freddie Maertens, Jan Janssen, Tom Boonen and long-forgotten Belgian trundler Eddy Merckx.”

Which brings me to a different question: is Eddy Merckx the only cyclist to have a train or subway station dedicated to him?

76km to go: Just like that, we hit the day’s first categorised climb – the cat 1 Col d’Aspin. It’s a 12km slog to the summit, at a steady 6.5% gradient. The first 50km of road got covered inside an hour.

82km to go: A second two-man breakaway has formed – Welshman Owain Doull (EF-Education) and Canada’s Guillaume Boivin (Israel-Premier Tech). They have a 20-second lead over the pack.

At the back, Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) is a full minute off the pace while his fellow straggler, Fabio Felline (Astana), has abandoned the race.

Intermediate sprint result:

1. Jasper Philipsen, 20 pts
2. Wout van Aert, 17 pts
3. Michael Matthews, 15 pts
4. Nick Schultz, 13 pts
5. Alexander Krieger, 11 pts
6. Gregor Mühlberger, 10 pts
7. Simon Geschke, 9 pts
8. Filippo Ganna, 8 pts
9. Gorka Izagirre, 7 pts
10. Edward Planckaert, 6 pts
11. Alberto Bettiol, 5 pts
12. Guy Niv, 4 pts
13. Benjamin Thomas, 3 pts
14. Georg Zimmermann, 2 pts
15. Tom Pidcock, 1 pt

“The polka dot and green jerseys used to be for specialist climbers and sprinters who were no good at anything else,” says James Abbott. “What’s changed?”

I would put it down to the advent of the Tour’s superhuman all-rounders – your Van Aerts, your Sagans, your Alaphilippes. But let me know your thoughts, readers.

We pass through the intermediate sprint in La Barthe-de-Neste, won by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin). Wout Van Aert crosses just behind him, and the 17 points earned mean that he cannot be caught in the sprint competition. As long as he completes the Tour, he’ll be the green jersey winner.

98km to go: They’ve been moving at a fair old pace so far, with Vingegaard clocking around 50km/h. Van Aert was one of a quartet who moved across to the leading pair, but all the breakers have now been swallowed up.

“I’m pretty sure that when I was a kid, the polka dots on the KotM jersey were in offset vertical lines, rather than the parallel grid of today,” says Louise Wright. “Am I misremembering, and if I’m not, when did they change it?”

You certainly aren’t, Louise – it’s a relatively recent design change made in 2019 (as far as I can tell). Here’s the 2018 King, Julian Alaphilippe, wearing a more traditional polka-dot jersey.

106km to go: We have a mini-breakaway, with Dutchman Dylan van Baarle (Ineos) and Britain’s Connor Swift (Arkea-Samsic) carving out a 20-second gap. Plenty are pushing to try and join them, including Tom Pidcock, teammate of Van Baarle and compatriot of Swift.

112km to go: We’ve just left the Haute-Garonne region, crossing into Hautes-Pyrénées. The peloton are still in one piece, preparing to slalom through Aventignan, a village known for its cave paintings.

120km to go: There’s an edge to the early proceedings, the pack spread out across the road and watching closely for potential breakaways. Vingegaard in particular is staying very close to Pogacar, while Chris Froome is the latest rider to try and fail to eke out a small gap at the front.

It could be a big day in the race for the polka-dot jersey, the snazziest of all the jerseys. There are 35 points to be won over today’s four categorised climbs. Simon Geschke (Cofidis) is the current leader with 58 points, ahead of Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) with 39 and Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost) with 37. Vingegaard is in fourth.

After a ceremonial ride through Saint-Gaudens, the race is officially under way, with 130km to go on the road to Peyragudes.

The yellow jersey wearer, Jonas Vingegaard, has spoken to Eurosport about Majka’s withdrawal, which may well weaken his rival further.

“It won’t change the way we race, I just think it’s a pity he’s out,” says Vingegaard. “He’s a man who can really make a difference in the race. I’m enjoying every day in yellow, just going to go out and do my best.”

Some potentially huge breaking news in the battle for the general classification. UAE-Team Emirates have announced that Tadej Pogacar’s mountain lieutenant, Rafal Majka, is out of the race due to a thigh injury.

“Majka sustained a strain injury to his thigh after some mechanical trouble on stage 16 when his chain broke,” said the team medical director, Dr Adrian Rotunno. “This resulted in a tear of his right quadriceps muscle, and unfortunately due to the muscle damage he is unable to ride.”

Take a closer look at today’s stage, which has four categorised climbs. After a gently uphill first 50km, it’s pretty much non-stop rise and fall until the finish line, in temperatures of around 26-27 degrees.

Wout van Aert looks certain to end this year’s Tour with the green jersey – the big Belgian is 200 points clear of his rivals in the sprint competition. Van Aert was left visibly peeved on Tuesday when DSM rider Nils Eekhoff nicked in front of him at the intermediate sprint, despite having zero points in the green jersey race.

“Everyone has the right to sprint,” Van Aert told Eurosport after the stage. “I did tell Nils I would have appreciated it if he had said he wanted to sprint beforehand. Then we could really do that. I thought that was a bit sad. I think they want to spice up the cash register at DSM.”

Tuesday’s stage belonged to Hugo Houle, the Canadian rider who broke away to triumph in Foix – and then dedicated the win to his brother, Pierrik, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver a decade ago.

Houle and his brother used to compete together in cycling and triathlon. “When he died there was no one to share the story,” he said after his solo victory. “That was my way to keep believing. That was my motivation, to do it for my little brother. I had no idea I could do it and today I did.”

There are only five racing days left in this year’s Tour de France – and if either Jonas Vingegaard or Tadej Pogacar want to make their winning move on a climb, it will have to happen today or tomorrow. The battle between the two, sparked into life a week ago in the Alps, is starting to resemble the never-ending fight scene from They Live.

After a gentle first 50km, Wednesday’s short stage then serves up four steep climbs in quick succession, ending with a summit finish at Peyragudes. With both contenders’ teams weakened on the road here, this is a chance for Pogacar to strike back, or for Vingegaard to assert his dominance. Or for Geraint Thomas to roll through the dust cloud in front of him and make this a three-way race to Paris.

Today’s stage profile doesn’t favour a breakaway, but with the GC heavyweights focused on each other, it could be a day for a late surge. Perhaps the time is right for Thibaut Pinot or Romain Bardet (who won here in 2017) to deliver France’s first home stage win this year. We’ll find out soon enough, so stick around.