Pedersen and Lidl-Trek have a 'master plan' for Stage 17 of the Tour de France: 'Picked out before the start'

Opportunities for attackers have already been scarce in this Tour de France, and they’ve had to wait a while for one. But on Wednesday, a (small) opportunity awaits on Stage 17. Mathieu van der Poel is ready for action, and of course, Mads Pedersen is often in the mix as well. The Dane is hatching a “master plan” with his Lidl-Trek team.

On Wednesday, we’ll set off on the seventeenth stage from Chambéry toward Voiron. The 174.4-kilometer stage features four small climbs in the first half, which means that, on paper—especially in the third week of a Grand Tour—it won’t be a walk in the park for the sprinters. Attackers will therefore see their chance.

"We definitely see opportunities," Van der Poel noted after Tuesday’s time trial. "Both for me and for Jasper (Philipsen, ed.), although that will of course depend on how the race unfolds. In any case, it’s the last chance before Paris that we as a team would still like to seize, so we quickly decided to go all out for it.”

The Dutchman said: “I think this is the last chance for many attackers. The first 50 to 60 kilometers are very tough, but after that it’s not so bad. It will really depend on how the race unfolds.” And if you see an opportunity for attackers, you naturally have to mention Pedersen as well.

The Danish rider from Lidl-Trek took it easy in Tuesday’s time trial. “It was nice to loosen up my legs for tomorrow’s stage. We did a good two-hour ride this morning, and I kept up a decent pace on the climb, but after that it was just a relaxed ride to the finish—nothing out of the ordinary,” the green jersey wearer told the organizers on Tuesday.

All of this is in preparation for Wednesday’s crucial 17th stage. “That’s one of the days we had picked out before the start of the Tour. We’re going for the stage win tomorrow. We need to come up with a master plan with the team director,” said Lidl-Trek (as expected), which certainly has plans for the stage to Voiron.

That plan will be finalized on Monday evening, because: “The team directors were really focused on this stage with Juan Ayuso and Skelly (Mattias Skjelmose, ed.), but we’ll know for sure tonight after dinner.” In that time trial, Skjelmose was the big surprise, finishing third in the stage results, while Ayuso lost a lot of time.