Richard Carapaz redeems himself with a victory in the Tour de France 2024

After the disappointment of not being able to defend his Olympic champion title in the upcoming Paris 2024 games, Richard Carapaz achieved a superb victory to conclude a hard-fought breakaway. Meanwhile, the favorites for the overall classification of the 2024 Tour de France also provided us with a daily dose of spectacle, with Remco Evenepoel not giving up on the second place in the general classification.

Remco Evenepoel threatens Jonas Vingegaard's second place on the podium

When we learned about the route of the 2024 Tour de France back in December, stages like today's, with a finish in a low and medium mountain summit, could have gone unnoticed. However, just like what happened in stage 11 that ended in Le Lioran, it provided us with another great session of top-notch cycling, only suitable for the most demanding palates. Not only in terms of the general classification, which also offered us some interesting things, but solely for the stage victory among some of the best cyclists in the peloton.

But let's start from the beginning. Stage number 17 of this 2024 Tour de France was heading towards the traditional gateway to the Alps, the city of Gap. The stage did not conclude in this locality this time but climbed up the mountains, with about 40 very tough final kilometers, to finish near the ski resort of Superdévoluy.

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A short and gentle climb that was preceded first by the Col Bayard and, above all, by the Col de Noyer, a tough ascent that brings memories of the day, in the 1971 Tour de France, when Luis Ocaña attacked on this mountain and managed to defeat the untouchable Eddy Merckx with that memorable ride towards Orcières-Merlette. A Tour de France that would have undoubtedly been for the Spaniard if it hadn't been for that unfortunate fall, a few days later, on the descent of the Col de Menté.

Returning to the race, the stage started off completely crazy, with a frantic pace and attack after attack in a day with many chances for the breakaway to triumph. However, none of them managed to succeed. A quartet composed of Tiesj Benoot, Bob Jungels, Romain Gregoire, and Magnus Cort Nielsen barely managed to gain a minute advantage. Meanwhile, behind them, the combat continued until, at one point, the rubber band broke and a tremendous group of more than 40 cyclists formed, of course, including many top-level names: Enric Mas, Richard Carapaz, David Gaudu, Wout van Aert, Christophe Laporte, Geraint Thomas, Wout Poels, Romain Bardet, Simon Yates...

The pause in the peloton allowed them to quickly gain an advantage, although they barely reduced the gap with the leading quartet. It wasn't until the climb to the Col de Noyer that the group shattered due to natural selection, and among those who remained at the front, Simon Yates was the first to attack, determined to go for the victory with a spectacular pace.

The British rider did not count on the response from the Locomotive of Carchi. Richard Carapaz jumped after him and quickly closed the gap, and after a couple of kilometers of pacing himself, he decided to go for the stage victory. Meanwhile, from the remnants of the chasing group, Enric Mas made a late jump, showing moments of potential to at least reach Simon Yates.

After a back-and-forth in the first part of the descent of the Col de Noyer, a slight favorable flat section before the final descent, Richar Carapaz managed to consolidate the gap and faced the final climb to Superdévoluy with a comfortable cushion that guaranteed him not only the stage victory but also a bath of crowds. A triumph that undoubtedly helps to alleviate the disappointment of not being selected by the Ecuadorian Federation to represent his country at the Paris Olympic Games, presumably due to disagreements between the cyclist and the federation.

Meanwhile, with the peloton almost 10 minutes behind, the ascent to the Col de Noyer proceeded calmly until, about 3 kilometers from the summit, UAE Team Emirates increased the pace slightly, reducing the group to just a dozen cyclists, but it seemed like a pace only to keep the situation under control and prevent any moves.

However, just like on the Plateau de Beille stage, Tadej Pogacar must have seen something or simply enjoyed playing the mischievous child, as the Slovenian attacked again. It wasn't as brutal as the previous days, indicating that perhaps it was more for fun than to really extend the differences. In any case, this allowed Jonas Vingegaard to launch an attack initially, but it soon became clear that the Dane was losing strength, and it was Remco Evenepoel who, unlike the Visma-Lease a Bike rider, seemed to be in better condition as the 2024 Tour de France progressed, who had to chase after Tadej.

Pogacar reached the summit with just a dozen seconds of advantage over Evenepoel and the same over Vingegaard, starting a fast pursuit on the slight flat section we mentioned earlier. And Jonas was joined by Christophe Laporte, who came from the breakaway and did a tremendous job to catch up with Evenepoel and a little later, between the Frenchman and the Belgian, they managed to reach Pogacar.

Only the final climb remained, where Remco, after realizing he was stronger than Vingegaard, didn't hesitate to try again. Tadej Pogacar paid no attention to the attack, leaving all the chasing work to the Visma-Lease a Bike riders, who added Wout van Aert to their ranks, who also came back from the breakaway. Meanwhile, Evenepoel found his teammate Jan Hirt, who used up the last of his strength trying to increase the gap.

 

 

 

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He finally crossed the finish line with just a 12-second advantage over a Tadej Pogacar who overtook Jonas in the final straight, simply to continue marking his territory while Vingegaard finished a few meters behind, leaving the feeling that in the remaining stages, he will have to keep an eye on Remco rather than Tadej. 1 minute and 58 seconds separate the second and third place in the general classification after this stage 17 of the 2024 Tour de France, promising us a fierce battle for the second step of the podium in the remaining stages.

Stage 17 Classification

1. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 4h06'13''
2. Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) +37''
3. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +57''
4. Laurens de Plus (INEOS Grenadiers) +1'44''
5. Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) +1'44''
6. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) +2'36''
7. Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) +2'38''
8. Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +2'39''
9. Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) +2'39''
10. Alex Aranburu (Movistar Team) +2'39''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 70h21'27''
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +3'11''
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +5'09''
4. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +12'57''
5. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +13'24''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +13'30''
7. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +15'41''
8. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) +17'51''
9. Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech) +18'15''
10. Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) +18'35''