Stage 17 - No Surprises on Final Day in Pyrénées

If anyone wanted to challenge Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky for the yellow jersey, today was the day to do it. A few little attempts were made, but, in the end, it was Wiggins and Chris Froome who stamped their own exclamation point on the prize by attacking everyone else! The peleton has thrown in the yellow towel!

A large escape group formed early. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) tried to join that escape, but Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) convinced him it was a bad idea, so he drifted back to the peleton. If Nibali had stayed in the breakaway, the Sky riders would have chased down the whole group. That is why Valverde asked Nibali to retreat. In the middle of the stage, Nibali’s team Liquigas was leading the peleton with a fast pace, hoping to catch the first breakaway and either drop Wiggins and his Sky riders, or set up Nibali for an attack of his own. But they only succeeded in using up their own reserves of strength. They caught most of the original escape group, but not all of them, and Sky had no trouble matching their pace.

Late in the race, Liquigas and even Nibali faded. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) put in a couple of short-lived attacks, and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) tried one as well. The effect was to drop most of the contenders (including Nibali and Cadel Evans (BMC)), but Wiggins and Froome reeled in every attack.

On the last climb of the day, Valverde was the sole survivor of the original breakaway, but his lead had dropped to less than one minute. Froome could have caught him and won the stage, but he loyally stayed to shepherd Wiggins home, settling for 2^nd and 3^rd place, and allowing Valverde to capture the stage with a mere 19-second margin. All the other GC contenders lost time, and many of the top places were re-arranged. The word "Froome" will now become a verb, meaning to sacrifice one’s own glory for the glory of the team's designated leader.

Pinot made a valiant effort to keep up with the Sky leaders, and finished in 4^th place for the day. He regained 32 seconds of the 2 minutes he had lost the previous day to Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) in the contest for the white jersey (youth).  But Tejay, by staying close to the yellow jersey instead of Frooming for Cadel Evans, moved up to 5^th place overall, and still holds the white jersey by more than 3 minutes.

Thomas Voeckler (Europecar) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) started the day just 4 points apart in the contest for the climbers’ polka-dot jersey. They both joined the early breakaway, and they battled for the climbing points on the first four mountains. Voeckler out-sprinted Kessiakoff at the top each time, and increased his climbing points lead by 7 points. His total margin is now 11 points. There are not that many climbing points left to be earned in the remaining stages before Paris, so Voeckler has won that battle.

With Froome and Wiggins placing 2^nd and 3^rd in the stage, Team Sky easily won the team prize for the day. But Chris Horner, Andréas Klöden and Maxime Monfort brought Team RadioShack home in a close second place, preserving still a 14-minute lead for the overall team prize. Horner has certainly vindicated the decision, over the objection of coach Johan Bruyneel, to include him on the roster,  And where is Bruyneel?

One last news flash:  American Tyler Farrar (RadioShack) has relinquished his Lanterne Rouge!  That dubious honor is now claimed by Jan Ghyselinck (Cofidis) whose three-week total time after more than 82 total hours of riding is 1 minute 21 seconds slower than Farrar's.  But I'm curious how it was calculated.  After stage 15 Farrar was listed on the TDF website as the red lantern, with Ghyselinck 4 places above and 9'13" faster than Farrar.  For stage 16, the TDF website does not show a stage time for Ghyselinck, nor list him in the overall time list.  In stage 17, Farrar and Ghyselinck had the same time, but now Ghyselinck is shown as the red lantern, one place below and 1'21" slower than Farrar.  Something must have happened to Ghyselinck in stage 16.  He might have finished outside the time limit.  There is a rule that allows late finishers to continue if their delay is for unusual circumstances, but they can also be given time penalties.  If any readers know what happened to Ghyselinck in stage 16, and how he lost 10 minutes to Farrar, please post the answer in the comments.  In any event, it is going to be another nail-biter to see who wins the Lantern Rouge "prize" in Paris.

Mystery solved:  The French journal L'Avenir explained that Ghyselinck was struggling at the very back of the race to reach the finish line, and was being delayed by the traffic jam of fans coming down from the mountain.  He was only able to make it through the crowds when a motorcycle escorted him through by clearing a path.  In the end, he arrived at the finish line 4 seconds later than the time delay cut-off--more than 10 minutes later than Farrar.  He could have been dismissed from the race, but the jury exercised their discretion and allowed him to continue.  In another French article, he was quoted as saying that a policeman directed him to make a wrong turn, which cost him 20 seconds.  One of the race commissioners witnessed this debacle, and apparently pursuaded the other jurors to allow him to continue.  No penalty, but he did lose 10 minutes to Farrar.  See the articles in French at: http://www.lavenir.net/article/detail.aspx?articleid=DMF20120719_004 and http://www.rtbf.be/sport/cyclisme/tourdefrance/detail_jan-ghyselinck-hors-delai-repeche?id=7807073

Aaron, Nan and Matt at the top of the Col du Tourmalet, saying "Good-bye" to the Pyrénées, as the Tour heads north towards Paris.

One last parting look back at the Pyrénées, as we head towards the outskirts of Toulouse for the start of Stage 18, which will take us to Brive-la-Gaillarde.  Almost half-way to Paris.