Felix Gall takes stunning stage win in Courchevel on stage 17 of the Tour de France

Austrian conquers the Col de la Loze, Jonas Vingegaard takes more time on Tadej Pogačar in fight for overall victory

Felix Gall
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) climbed to a superb victory in Courchevel on stage 17 of the Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard increased his overall lead to more than seven minutes.

After sterling work from his Australian teammate Ben O’Connor, Gall attacked from the breakaway on the brutal slopes of the Col de la Loze - taking the souvenir Henri Desgrange in the process - and soloed to the line in Courchevel. Simon Yates (Jayco-AIUla) took second place and improved his position in the general classification.

Behind the Austrian, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Emirates) cracked on the slopes of the final climb. Jonas Vingegaard increased his lead over the Slovenian to 7-35 in the fight for overall victory and extinguished any hope Pogačar may have had of wearing the yellow jersey in Paris on Sunday.

As was widely expected, the hors categorie Col de la Loze shattered the race in the stage finale. The remnants of the day's 34 man breakaway - which included climbers of the calibre of Yates, David Gaudu and Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Bahrain Victorious duo Pello Bilbao and Jack Haig - exploded on the brutal gradients as Gall attacked on one of the toughest sections.

Behind them Pogačar suddenly blew up in the yellow jersey group and was quickly distanced by Jumbo-Visma and Vingegaard.

Gall held on to take the biggest win of his career as Vingegaard all but sealed a second successive overall victory.

How it happened

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