Team UAE Emirates obliterated the Tour de France peloton with a pace so relentlessly high they turned stage 17 into the most brutal yet, leaving big names scattered and gasping for air along the baking roads of the Pyrenees, and setting up a hard-earned victory for Tadej Pogacar on the Peyragudes summit. But the one man they most wanted to crack, the yellow jersey of Jonas Vingegaard, clung on gamely to Pogacar’s wheel throughout the blitz of pace and pain, and despite everything his overall lead remains virtually intact.
The day started badly for Pogacar with the news that his key mountain lieutenant, Rafal Majka, had withdrawn after tearing a thigh muscle when his chain broke during stage 16. But what was left of UAE Emirates attacked regardless, as if this was the last throw of the dice, with the young Dane Mikkel Bjerg shattering the peloton with an enormous turn on the front over the first two climbs and the American Brandon McNulty doing likewise all the way to the gruelling finish.
