Tour de France stage 17: Matteo Trentin wins solo in Gap

With 14km to race, Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) launched a solo move from the day’s breakaway leading into the final 5.2km Category 3 Col de la Sentinelle climb, building his lead up the scorching climb and extending his advantage to everyone, to win alone in Gap. It was the Italian rider’s third Tour stage victory in his career, and his Australian team’s fourth win in the 2019 Tour.

“It was a really emotional finish,” Trentin said. “I’ve only won two races alone before in my career. Doing it in the Tour de France with this finish in this super strong group, it’s just amazing.”

With the breakaway group’s big lead, Trentin could sit back and anticipate the climb. When any collaboration ended, Trentin saw his moment and launched.

“When I had a 10-second gap then they start to watch each other, and with the legs I have I can finish it off,” Trentin continued. “And for me that is probably the most important thing, to do my own pace and don’t follow anyone. And what I gained I didn’t lose.”

Coming home over 30 seconds adrift was Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), also solo, as the breakaway group splintered on the final climb of the day under relentless heat.

Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) sprinted to third, best of the rest from a group of several others.

One of 33 riders to break away from kilometer 0 at the beginning of the 200km stage from Pont du Gard to Gap, Trentin took advantage of the truce among the GC contenders the day before the race enters the decisive Alpine stages, to steadily build a lead throughout the day. The break’s gap ballooned to over 20 minutes by the stage’s conclusion.

Though the final climb came late in the stage and could have been used by a GC contender to grab a precious few seconds, none of the leading riders made any moves. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) still holds a 1:35 advantage over Geraint Thomas (Ineos) as the Tour heads toward the Alps for the next three stages.

“I tried to save as much energy as possible today,” Alaphilippe said after the finish. “It was a nice stage to stay safe. Now I am ready for the big mountain stages. I have sore legs like everyone in the peloton, but I have never felt so strong when it comes to being motivated to defend the yellow jersey.”

How the stage unfolded

Almost immediately, a large group of breakaway riders tried to get away from the peloton. The gap began to increase but some teams were determined not to let the group go.

Five teams were not represented in the breakaway: Jumbo-Visma, Total Direct Energie, Groupama-FDJ, Ineos, and Arkea-Samsic. Two of them were very eager to change that situation.

Eventually, after some 30 kilometers of struggle, the group was unleashed and their gap quickly grew.

The gap after 37km of racing was 1:53, and rapidly ballooning. With 115km to race, their lead was 8:21.

In the break were 33 riders: Daniel Oss, Lukas Pöstlberger, Kasper Asgreen, Alexis Gougeard, Dylan Teuns, Nelson Oliveira, Omar Fraile, Gorka Izagirre, Simon Clarke, Tom Scully, Christopher Juul-Jensen, Matteo Trentin, Greg Van Avermaet, Micky Schär, Sven Erik Bystrom, Rui Costa, Sergio Henao, Vegard Stake Laengen, Bauke Mollema, Toms Skujins, Jasper Stuyven, Nicholas Roche, Natneal Berhane, Jesus Herrada, Anthony Perez, Pierre Luc Périchon, Thomas De Gendt, Jens Keukeleire, Nils Politt, Xandro Meurisse, Andrea Pasqualon, Edvald Boasson Hagen, and Ben King.

Andrea Pasqualon was the first over the line at the intermediate sprint at Vaison-la-Romaine. Meanwhile, the temperatures began to soar, reaching well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit through the rolling hills of Provence.

The break’s advantage also continued to soar. After one hour of racing it was 3:24; after two hours, it was 8:42; after three hours it settled in at 11:36.

De Gendt took another point in the mountain classification as he reached the summit of the Côte de la Rochette-du-Buis first.

Brief downpours fell on the field, drenching the riders and bringing about much needed relief from the sweltering temperatures. And still the gap to the break grew, now out to 14:14.

Steady work at the front of the race has ensured the attackers the opportunity to fight for the stage.

Now the battle is full on!#TDF2019 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/mYt2hcJfuJ

— letourdata (@letourdata) July 24, 2019

With 30km left to race, the breakaway riders began to attack one another, and after several furious attempts to get away by several riders, a critical split took place.

A group of 10 riders eventually got away, including Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Greg Van Avermaet (CCC), Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), Ben King (Dimension Data), Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), and Gorka Izagirre (Astana). Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), who had initially missed the decisive move, launched from the chase group and tried to bridge the 20 second gap.

The peloton, containing all of the GC contenders and jersey wearers, was more than 17 minutes back.

With 14km to go, Trentin launched a solo move leading into the final 5.2km Category 3 Col de la Sentinelle. Perichon (Cofidis) was the first to try and hunt him down. Oss led the charge of the remaining five that chased farther back.

At the summit, Trentin held a lead of 30 seconds from Perichon and a charging Asgreen. The chase was on down the descent of the Sentinelle.