Bagnères-de-Luchon to Peyragudes, 143.5 km (89.2 mi)
A familiar sight as the most loyal of domestiques, Chris Froome, leads home his team-leader, Brad Wiggins in his Yellow jersey. Photograph: Stephane Mahe
Alejandro Valverde's Christmas card list just grew by two people today, for without them he wouldn't be winning his first Tour de France stage since 2008 on his first Tour back since his suspension. It was the day when Bradley Wiggins confirmed he had all but won the Tour de France as he and his strong climbing team-mate, Chris Froome, showed why nobody had been able to attack them all tour long.
Firstly, Vincenzo Nibali who had descended brilliantly off the first climb in poor conditions to join a break in which Valverde was a part of. Knowing that Sky were sure to give chase and pull them all back, a frustrated looking Valverde appealed to Nibali to drop back which he did allowing the break to go up the road. Nibali wouldn't have been popular had he stuck around, but then again, this is a race, not a popularity contest so it was a shame for it would have livened up the race in a way we weren't expecting and certainly earlier than we could have hoped for on the stage. Still, had Nibali ignored Valverde's protests and stuck around throwing caution to the wind, even at the expense of potentially cracking later, it's unlikely anyone else in the break would have worked with him knowing the forlorn trip they were on. What Nibali really needed was two team-mates up ahead and another to descent across the gap with him.
Then there is Bradley Wiggins who along with his team-mate and tow-master, Chris Froome, had ridden away from all their rivals in the final kilometers of the stage and were closing in rapidly on Valverde. A two minute lead quickly became a single minute and when Froome accelerated away from Wiggins it dropped to 30 seconds. Froome, either under instructions through the race radio, or through an unwavering loyalty to Wiggins, sat up and waited for the Yellow jersey. It allowed Valverde just the breathing space he needed to stay clear and win the stage by just 19 seconds.
Watching the shear potential of Froome that was being confined through team orders left me in no doubt that not only could he have won the stage had he gone today, but had he rode as he could have throughout the Tour, then he might well have challenged Wiggins for the Tour win. It's that ruthlessness and self centred will to win that makes some of the best champions, but Froome listened to his pay masters first and foremost and rode for his team-leader. In many ways that is admirable, and age is certainly on his side to one day win the Tour himself, but you never know how often the form or the opportunity will come along, and sometimes you have to just go and seize it.
Froome admitted as much after the race. "Maybe [the chance to win] it's not going to happen again. That would be bad," he said. "But I'm 27 and I hope I'll be luckier later."
Make no mistake about it, his puncture on stage one in which he lost 1-25 to Wiggins has cost him dear for without it he would be just 40 seconds behind him and certainly, with the reigns off (there's no guarantee he'd still have been allowed to), he'd be well into the Yellow jersey with a hotly anticipated and very exciting time-trial to come on Saturday with Wiggins looking to win it with a day to go.
But as fate would have it the two best riders in the race this year were on the same team and we've lost out on the potential of such a battle to 'what if's' only.
And that isn't to take anything away from Bradley Wiggins because cycling is a team effort as well as an individual one and on many occasions down the years the man who has won the Tour has relied on big support from the team around him. Wiggins knows this all too well. "He's been absolutely solid for me the whole Tour," Wiggins explained of Froome after finishing the stage. "He's just one less thing to worry about. If he was in an opposing team then you'd constantly have that battle all the time. Yeah, so I think... It don't take a rocket scientist to work it out, you'd rather have him in your camp than in someone else's. He's an incredible climber."
What Wiggins might lack slightly on Froome on the climbs, he more than makes up for in time-trials, and while it might have been nice to see them race head-to-head, the man in Yellow after three weeks usually deserves to be there. Yes it could have been Wiggins that picked up that puncture on stage one, but nobody has ever won the Tour without riding their luck, as well as their bike, along the way.
Just look at the damage Wiggins and Froome did to those around them today. Everyone was looking for Nibali to make the big move and to test the Sky duo and while every one was screaming at their televisions as the kilometres ticked down, wondering why nobody was trying to break Sky, we eventually realized once and for all what has been evident to us all throughout this Tour: that nobody else is strong enough. Not even close.
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WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BREAK?
From today's early break of 18 riders, just one stayed clear of the chasing GC contenders. That was Alejandro Valverde who took the win, but what of the rest? Here is were the other 17 that went off early in search of glory came in behind Valverde.
1. Alejandro Valverde in 4-12-11; 24. Chris Anker Sorensen at 4-10; 25. Egoi Martinez at st.; 30. Fredrik Kessiakoff at 6-55; 31. Sandy Casar at st.; 32. Rui Costa at st.; 33. Blel Kadri at 7-33; 34. Levi Leipheimer at 8-19; 37. Pieter Weening at 10-02; 38. Laurens ten Dam at 10-42; 39. Gorka Izaguirre at st.; 43. Jean-Christophe Peraud at 13-59; 44. Alexander Vinokourov at 15-02; 46. Simone Stortoni at 15-02; 48. Thomas Voeckler at 16-01; 51. Jorge Azanza Soto at 16-06; 53. Johnny Hoogerland at st.; 72. Ruben Plaza Molina at st.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It was the first time I thought, 'maybe I've won the Tour today. Once we saw Nibali had cracked on the top of the Peyresourde, we knew we weren't going to have the danger of him attacking in the final climb. At that point I knew it was pretty much over. Obviously we've got the time trial to come but that's very much our domain. You'd put your house on me not losing that sort of time. It's all looking very good at the moment.” -- Brad Wiggins reckons its a forgone conclusion now. So off to the bookies you go with your mortgage details.
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FAKE TWEET OF THE DAY
@alejanvalverde What's wrong Nibali, couldn't you stick the early pace in my break away group?
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ABANDONMENT'S
Amazingly everyone got through today. Or was it because they knew that to get through today would be to effectively finish the Tour?
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STAGE 17 RESULT
1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar in 4-12-11
2. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky at 19 sec
3. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky s.t.
4. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-BigMat at 22 sec
5. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar at 26 sec
6. Jurgen Vandenbroeck (Bel) Lotto-Belisol s.t.
7. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 37 sec
8. Tejay Vangarderen (USA) BMC Racing at 54 sec
9. Chris Horner (USA) Radioshack-Nissan at 1-02
10. Dan Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp at 1-11
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 17
1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky 78h 28-02
2. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky at 2-05
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 2-41
4. Jurgen Vandenbroeck (Bel) Lotto-Belisol at 5-53
5. Tejay Vangarderen (USA) BMC Racing at 8-30
6. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 9-57
7. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Radioshack-Nissan at 10-11
8. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar at 10-17
9. Janez Brajokovic (Slo) Astana at 11-00
10. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-BigMat at 11-46
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THE RACE FOR THE LANTERNE ROUGE
Just when he looked to have it all wrapped up, Tyler Farrar went and blew his Lanterne Rouge lead on the final mountain stage. Unlike the Yellow jersey battle, this one ain't over yet for there is a rolling stage tomorrow from which time can be lost, a time-trial on Saturday from which minutes can be lost, and a ride into Paris that shouldn't see any time lost unless someone desperately want's this prize.153. Jan Ghyselinck (Bel) Cofidis in 81-57-08
152. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Sharp at 2-12
151. Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Saur-Sojasun at 2-43
150. Johan Vansummersen (Bel) Garmin-Sharp at 11-13
149. Aliaksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Katusha at 14-56
148. Albert Timmer (Ned) Argos-Shimano at 16-17
