TOUR DE FRANCE 2024 | STAGE 17 | SAINT-PAUL-TROIS-CHÂTEAUX > SUPERDÉVOLUY
The victory on Stage 17 of the 2024 Tour de France went to Richard Carapaz at the SuperDévoluy finish, with the EF Education-EasyPost rider outpowering his rivals on the final climbs. Securing his first ever Tour de France stage win, Carapaz launched an attack on the penultimate climb, to reach Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) and then overtake him 1.8km from the Col du Noyer summit, going on to reach the finish at SuperDévoluy, 37” ahead of the Briton and 57” ahead of Enric Mas (Movistar Team), who was third. The GC favourites also tested each other on the final two climbs, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) also attacking on the Col du Noyer, before Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) responded. Evenepoel then launched an attack on the final climb to SuperDévoluy earning him 10” on Pogačar and 12” over Vingegaard at the finish line. Pogačar remains in yellow, now leading second placed Vingegaard by 3’11” and Evenepoel by 5’09”.
High paced start
Of the riders who had finished Stage 16, Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain – Victorious) and Elmar Reinders (Team Jayco AlUla) were non-starters – in Reinders’ case because he had travelled home for the birth of his first child – meaning there were 148 riders on the start line in Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux. Early in the stage that number decreased, following the abandons of Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team), Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Team) who were unable to take the pace, as the bunch covered 49 km in the first hour of racing whilst also encountering crosswinds.
A four-man breakaway
The breakaway did not form immediately and the Visma-Lease a Bike riders attempted an attack at km 9. Three UAE riders, Yates, Soler and Sivakov temporarily found themselves in a second group, but the peloton regrouped at km 17. Following this came a rapid succession of attacks and counter-attacks, with Wout Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X), Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana) going clear between km 30 and km 36 before they were reeled in. At km 57, it was Magnus Cort (Uno-X) who initiated an attack which saw Tiesj Benoot (Visma-Lease a Bike), Bob Jungels (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) follow him to form a strong four-man breakaway group. The chase was incessant behind them and caused significant splits and then regroupings in the peloton, with crosswinds also having an obvious impact on the main group.
Cort first at the intermediate sprint
At the intermediate sprint in Veynes (km 114.8), it was Cort who arrived in first position, whilst the peloton were 45” behind the breakaway four, led by the green jersey Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty). Soon after that, at around km 120, a group of 47 riders counter attacked out of the peloton, which gave them the go-ahead. At the foot of Col Bayard (Cat. 2, km 145.7), the leading quartet had a 1’45” advantage over their pursuers and 4’50” over the GC group controlled by UAE Team Emirates. By the summit of that climb, which Cort was first to the top of, the leading quartet had a 30” advantage over the chasing pair of Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) and Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ), who had left the other riders from the large counter-attack group behind. That group trailed the breakaway riders by 1’00” at the top of the Col Bayard, whilst the relaxed peloton in which the GC riders were present was +6’40” off the lead of the race.
Col du Noyer attacks
Martin and Madouas made it to the front at the foot of the Col du Noyer (PB, Cat. 1, km 166.3), where the chasing group was 40” from the head of the race. Simon Yates then attacked from that chasing group, the Briton from Jayco-AlUla soon catching and overtaking the leading six. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) was also in hot pursuit and he then caught Yates on the penultimate climb of the stage, the pair briefly ascending together, before Carapaz attacked and went solo 1.8 km from the Col du Noyer summit. The Ecuadorian hero and Olympic champion would not look back from there, relentlessly pedalling to a memorable victory at SuperDévoluy.
Richard Carapaz (Ef Education-Easypost): “I Will Remember This Forever”
“This victory means everything! I’ve been trying to get it since the start of the Tour, that was the goal. In the general classification we are very far away, but the hope remained of winning a stage. It was a very difficult day, with a lot of attacks, but in the end, a large group formed, I was able to come out at the right time and I managed to get this result which I will remember forever. I really made the most of the moment. I knew the final well having studied it with my sports director. I had won stages in the Giro and the Vuelta but the Tour de France is the race with all the best riders in the world. Each team comes with its best set-up and its best squad. The Tour is the best race. I am also happy for all the people who follow me. I’m proud to be here and represent all of America in the best possible way.”
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty): “I’m Super Happy to Gain Some Points Again”
“Today to be honest my elbow and my knee were really hurting, especially my elbow, because with the stitches I could not move so well. So especially with today’s really fast racing we needed to accelerate more so it was super painful. Always the next day is the hardest, you feel the pain and it’s not nice to sleep, but mentally I’m highly motivated so that gave me a lot of strength today. Mentally I’m really strong and I’m super happy to gain some points again. It’s always the way, if you get closer you feel strong mentally, also because you say to yourself, this is the time, we are only two or three days away, so that gave me a lot of motivation and I am really happy I could finish in a good way today. You have to show the fighting spirit and if you are mentally strong nothing can stop you. I already said to my team yesterday, don’t worry it’s not yet finished and we’ll give it everything, just fight until Nice.”
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step): “I Had Good Legs and I Was Confident”
“I had done the reconnaissance for this stage so I knew the final well and that helped me. The start of the stage was very difficult, it took more than two hours to form a breakaway. Then I thought we were going to finish quite quietly, but Lidl-Trek launched an attack, then it was Tadej so there was a confrontation again. I was with Jonas and he did his best to come back, we were able to catch up on the descent with Christophe Laporte. At that moment, I felt like I had good legs and I was confident. So in the car they told me that I could try something. There was Jan Hirt at the front. I asked him to wait for me and then drop me off at the last kilometre and he did it perfectly. I took back 10” from Tadej and Jonas but that wasn’t the goal. I remain focused on my place on the podium, I’m good where I am but it allowed me to gain a little time on those behind me. I know that Tadej is defending his first place, but I am five minutes from him so I benefit from a little freedom and I took advantage of it.”
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “Sometimes I Don’t Know the Reason Why I Attack”
“It’s one less day to go, and it has been a very good one indeed. It was a very fast stage – and it felt like a junior race for 120km! It turned out to be a very hard day, one of those on which you spend a lot of energy. Visma-Lease a Bike did a great race today, as they were very aggressive. I don’t know exactly if they wanted to trouble me, or stress us. Sometimes I don’t know the reason why I attack – even me, I don’t know anymore! I guess I was just enjoying the climb, as it was steep and super nice, and I felt like attacking to test my legs into this third week and see if I could get a gap or something. In the end, it was Remco who put in a super good attack and broke away. Without the Visma guys, he would have put even more time on Jonas and me.”
TOUR DE FRANCE 2024 | STAGE 17 | SAINT-PAUL-TROIS-CHÂTEAUX > SUPERDÉVOLUY | DAILY STATS
35: CARAPAZ, MORE THAN EVER AN ECUADORIAN HERO
Already an Olympic Champion, a Giro winner, a podium finisher in the Tour de France and La Vuelta, Richard Carapaz made history when he became the first Ecuadorian wearer of the Maillot Jaune on day 3. And he achieves yet another unprecedented feat for Ecuador, now the 35th nation to win a stage in the Tour. The 34th was Eritrea, with Biniam Girmay’s success in Turin, the same day that Carapaz took the Maillot Jaune.
110: CARAPAZ’S TREBLE
Already a stage winner in La Vuelta (3 wins in 2022) and the Giro (1 in 2018, 2 in 2019), Richard Carapaz becomes the 110th rider with victories in all three Grand Tours. The 109th was Remco Evenepoel after his success in the Gevrey-Chambertin ITT (stage 7).
22.0: COL DU NOYER, CARAPAZ’S LAUNCHPAD
Forever associated with the legend of Luis Ocaña, Col du Noyer served today as a launchpad for Richard Carapaz to write history. The Ecuadorian was the fastest on the 7.5km ascent – 22.0km/h, 0.3km/h faster than Simon Yates – and he pushed his advantage on the downhill, with an average of 61.0km/h top speed of 84.2km/h. He was only the 5th fastest on the descent though… Jonas Vingegaard did 64.5km/h on average (max: 91.7km/h) and Remco Evenepoel went up to 95.1km/h as the duo replied to Tadej Pogačar’s attack.
36: POGAČAR’S YELLOW TALLY MATCHES BOBET’S
With a 15th Maillot Jaune in the Tour de France 2024, Tadej Pogačar brings his tally up to 36 and joins Louison Bobet at the 9th spot in the all-time rankings. Bobet won the Tour de France three times in a row and he took his last Maillot Jaune on the last day of the Tour 1955, 4 months and a half after his 30th birthday. Pogačar will turn 26 in September. A 37th Maillot Jaune would see Pogačar join Nicolas Frantz.
387-354: GIRMAY’S REPLY
On the day after he crashed at 59.8km/h in Nîmes, Biniam Girmay showed his stitches shall not slow him down, as he was the fastest from the bunch in the intermediate sprint, speeding up to 57.3km/h on a slightly rising road. The Eritrean sprinter is now 33 points ahead of Jasper Philipsen, with 150 points still up for grabs en route to Nice (including 60 points in the intermediate sprints). The last 15 Tours didn’t see a change of leader of the points standings after stage 18… But everything is possible until the end, as illustrated by the Tour 2003, when Baden Cooke edged Robbie McEwen on the very last day.
1-2: CARAPAZ-YATES, A SPECIAL DUO
The finish in SuperDévoluy saw Richard Carapaz and Simon Yates finish in the same top-3 for the 3rd time of their career. And each of them was a special one:
- stage 14 of the Giro 2019, Richard Carapaz took Ecuador’s first Maglia Rosa and went on to win the overall
- stage 14 of the Giro 2022, Yates wins in Turin (where Carapaz took the Maillot Jaune) and Carapaz (3rd) is back in Rosa
- stage 17 of the Tour de France 2024.
1: GRÉGOIRE, A COMBATIVE ROOKIE
Romain Grégoire, the 3rd youngest rider in the Tour de France 2024, showed his strength as he made a very hard fought for breakaway. After 57km of early battles, the Frenchman covered 103km at the front, with an average speed of 43.3km/h, and eventually received the combativity award. 3 other riders participating in their first Tour de France also won the award this year: Frank van den Broek (stage 1), Oier Lazkano (stage 4) and Thomas Gachignard (stage 16).
1-1-1: FOLLOW THE LEADERS!
Following successes for bib numbers 1 (Jonas Vingegaard) and 11 (Tadej Pogačar), Richard Carapaz propelled his 111 to the summit. It’s the first time in the history of the Tour that these 3 numbers win a stage in the same edition.
99: MAS BREAKS IN THE TOP-3
Riding his 99th Tour de France stage since his debut in 2019, Enric Mas achieved his best result: 3rd, the first time he finishes in the top-3, after 11 previous top-10s.
