Milan wins stage 17, despite an offensive INEOS and strong van Aert, in a sprint disrupted a crash

After Tuesday's spectacle, Wednesday was expected to be another day for the fast men. However, you can never be sure in the third week of a Grand Tour. Four riders quickly broke away, hoping to stay ahead of the pack. Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X) were the ones who got a ticket for the early breakaway.

Axel Laurance (INEOS Grenadiers) didn't catch the breakaway and tried to go for it anyway. The Frenchman ended up in a fierce chase, after which the peloton caught him again. The peloton was led by Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quick-Step, who took the lead for Milan and Merlier, respectively. Meanwhile, we saw images of the finish, where the rain was creating difficult conditions.

The lead of the four riders at the front increased to around three minutes, but in the run-up to the intermediate sprint, that gap gradually closed. Lidl-Trek would, of course, get involved in the battle for points for Milan, but the maximum haul from the peloton would, of course, be ‘only’ 11 points.

Abrahamsen took all the points from the breakaway, and Milan won the sprint from the peloton, ahead of Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty). However, just before that, a teammate of the man from Eritrea had crashed. Louis Barré, who had already crashed quite hard earlier in this Tour, hit the ground again on Wednesday. He reached for his shoulder but was able to continue shortly afterwards.

The peloton pushed hard on the Col de Pertuis, which at 3.7 kilometers at 6.6% was the first climb of the day. INEOS Grenadiers received word from the team car that the team had “nothing to lose,” so the formation accelerated on the climb. Suddenly, it was full throttle, but at the top, the four leaders still had a half-minute lead over the peloton, which was spread out like a ribbon. And who did we see struggling at the back? Milan in his green jersey.

Merlier, Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla), and Arnaud Démare (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) had also been dropped, so there was quite a bit of panic in the second peloton. The first peloton was a minute ahead, while the four leaders still had a half-minute lead over peloton one after the descent from the climb.

At first, we saw Quinn Simmons doing the work at the front of the first peloton, which made it seem likely that Lidl-Trek was not just playing the Milan card. Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) had already indicated before the race that he had a plan and was therefore well positioned at the front of the first peloton. However, Simmons dropped back not much later, and the American was partly responsible for the merging of the two pelotons.

With 75 kilometers to go, this brought an end to a somewhat chaotic phase, in which we saw Alpecin-Deceuninck, Tudor, and Picnic PostNL doing a lot of work at the front of the first peloton. The lead of the breakaway group then increased to one minute. That was the difference that Lidl-Trek and Soudal Quick-Step were aiming for.

In the run-up to the Col de Tartaiguille, the second and final climb of the day, we saw another crash, involving Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) and Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers), among others. All the riders who went down were able to continue. Meanwhile, it had started raining again at the finish.

On the final climb, it was Van Aert who chose to attack. The Belgian pushed hard, hoping to catch up with the four riders in front on his own. Simmons at the front of the peloton kept his pace. At the top, the peloton came up as a group, unlike earlier in the day. Van Aert had gained half a minute on the pack, but still had 20 seconds to make up on the leading group.

However, the Belgian did not get any closer, as the four leaders continued to pull away from him. With 34 kilometers to go, Van Aert decided to call it a day. The peloton caught up with him, but was still just over a minute behind the early breakaway. Meanwhile, the roads were slowly but surely getting wetter.

This created some extra tension in the peloton, which meant that we also saw the GC contenders at the front. Soudal Quick-Step, in turn, sent a man in the chase, as the leading group was only closing in slowly. With 17 kilometers to go, however, the gap was only half a minute, so it looked like we were going to get a ‘normal’ bunch sprint.

At 11.5 kilometers, Abrahamsen took the lead. The Norwegian accelerated and left his fellow breakaway riders behind. However, that also seemed to be in vain, as the peloton was quickly closing in. The attentive GC contenders were still well positioned at the front, after which they were able to let them go at the start of the last 5 kilometers.

A few hundred meters later, it was all over for Abrahamsen. The peloton was now really firing on all cylinders, and we flew around the wet roundabouts. The sprinters seemed to be brought up to the front in good time, although both Milan and Merlier had to make up some positions on their own.

However, things went wrong with just one kilometer to go when we saw a crash. A few riders were still in front, allowing them to battle for the stage win. Milan made his move at the right time and sprinted to victory. Meeus finished second and Lund Andresen third.