2016 Tour de France: Zakarin Solos Away for Stage 17 Summit Victory

Just as the same few sprinters tend to sweep up the flat stages in a give Tour de France, so too is it common to see the same names breaking away on hillier stages day after day. The first day in the Alps proved surprisingly similar to the ride through the Jura Mountains, as the same trio ended up contesting the finish off the front and the peloton had no answer for Chris Froome further behind. No jerseys changed hands, and indeed several of the leaders increased the gap between themselves and their rivals, making it likely that the standings we see now are the standings we will get in Paris next Sunday.

The biggest beneficiary of the status-quo situation among the remaining riders was Ilnur Zakarin, the Russian who suffered a mechanical issue two days earlier just when he might have challenged mountains classification leader Rafal Majka and eventual Stage 15 winner Jarlinson Pantano. This time nothing went wrong with his bike, as Zakarin attacked on the slopes of the final climb up to Finhaut-Emosson. Pantano was able to drop Majka and bridge up, but Zakarin proved too strong. Accelerating a second time he decisively dropped the Colombian and carved out nearly a minute by the finish line.

Trying in vain to get his jersey zipped up for the sponsors, Zakarin claimed one of the toughest stages of this year’s Tour in his first time participating in the race. Behind him, Pantano maintained a 30-second gap on Majka and came over the line just under a minute behind Zakarin. The wiry climber tried in vain to claim a victory on Colombian independence day and add a second stage win, but his Russian rival on the climbs proved too strong in the end.

Behind in the main field, Froome once again turned the screws on his rivals and created an even bigger buffer for himself in the process. Team Sky kept the pace high on the slopes, but the speed did not prevent BMC’s Richie Porte from trying to scale back his own deficit with a solo attack. Froome’s lieutenants put him in position to bridge up to Porte and gain even more advantage on the other GC riders. Left in his wake were Bauke Mollema, Nairo Quintana, and the rest of the hopefuls, who bled away more time to Froome and put themselves in position merely to fight for second and third.

(Tim de Waele/TDWSport)

With an advantage of more than two minutes on every other rider in the peloton, Froome has effectively sealed up his third Tour de France win barring a catastrophe over the final four days. But he was not the only rider to essentially lock his jersey in on this stage. Majka claimed the maximum points on all but the final summit of the day, extending his hold on the polka dots of the mountains classification to 83 points. Peter Sagan snatched the intermediate sprint in Martigny before the roads ratcheted skyward, and now has nearly 200 points’ advantage on Marcel Kittel after Mark Cavendish dropped out of the race to focus on Olympics preparations. And Adam Yates has built a lead of over three minutes in the young rider competition.

Froome has simply been too strong in this year’s race, rebuffing every effort by his rivals to attack and isolate the defending champion.With an individual time trial in the mountains taking place in Stage 18, it is likely that Froome will gain even more time over his rivals given that he is the best among the GC favorites in the race against the clock. Meanwhile Sagan merely needs to stay upright the rest of the way to Paris to claim his fifth consecutive green jersey, while Majka is in a similar boat as he aims for his second King of the Mountains title in the past three editions.

In a way it feels like the suspense has seeped out of the race. Then again, the Tour de France usually gets most interesting just when you think it has settled itself. With three more days in the Alps, even a seemingly insurmountable lead is not safe until the peloton actually reaches the Champs-Elysees.

Stage Results and Standings after Stage 17

Stage Results

General Classification (yellow jersey)

Points Classification (green jersey)

King of the Mountains (polka-dot jersey)

Best Young Rider (white jersey)