Chris Froome favourite for difficult Tour de France stage 17 time trial

Chris Froome, Tour de France 2013, stage 11 TT

The 2013 Tour de France's stage 17 time trial should be a classic test. It's just 32km in the Alps, from Embrun to Chorges, above the Lac de Serre-Poncon, but it contains almost everything.

There is almost no flat road to be found. The two main climbs are ‘only' second category, but in a time trial anyone who underestimates them could end up hemorrhaging time. The first climb of the Côte de Puy-Sanieres is 6.4km at an average gradient of six per cent.

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Michael Hutchinson is a writer, journalist and former professional cyclist. As a rider he won multiple national titles in both Britain and Ireland and competed at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He was a three-time Brompton folding-bike World Champion, and once hit 73 mph riding down a hill in Wales. His Dr Hutch columns appears in every issue of Cycling Weekly magazine