Place Name: Avenue Maurice René Simonet
Address: 32 Avenue Maurice René Simonet, 26000 Valence, France
Details: July 23, 2025
The sprinters have paid their due. They have hauled themselves through the mountains and calculated the time cut each day to make sure they would make it to the start the following day. On paper, the finish in Valence will be the last chance before Paris for them to get a result. The race leaves from Bollène, just North of Orange on the A7 motorway, and heads North into the Drôme, mostly following the Rhône river valley. The intermediate sprint comes after 48KM of racing in Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne, a small village of less than 500 people. The 3.5KM, 5% category four climb of the Col de Pertuis tops out 18KM later before nearly 30KM of gradual downhill roads to the town of Sauzet. The 3.9KM Col de Tartaiguille comes next and is the second and final category four climb. It summits 44KM from the finish and the remainder of the day is either downhill or flat to the finish. A few roundabouts in the final 3KM will string the peloton out before the final corner at 800M and the sprint for the line.
There were plenty of attacks from the start but the sprint teams of Lidl-Trek, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and Soudal Quickstep were watching everything closely. A group of four got away after 5KM of racing consisting of Vincenzo Albanese of EF-Education EasyPost, Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility, Mathieu Burgaudeau of TotalEnergies, and Quentin Pacher of Groupama-FDJ. The road shut down and it looked like the break was gone but Axel Laurance of Ineos took to the grass and attacked from the bunch. That spurred on other moves but the sprint teams were unified and shut it down once again. Laurance was still in the middle but he was losing ground on the four leaders and decided to pull the plug after 10KM of chasing.
Lidl-Trek started riding and they quickly got help from Soudal Quickstep. The gap was as high as 2 minutes 45 seconds but when Abrahamsen took the sprint through Roche-Saint-Secret-Béconne, the gap was down to 2 minutes. Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek won the sprint in the peloton with Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wanty following behind. Ineos took control of the bunch with 100KM to go on the approach to the Col de Pertuis and had the gap down to 1 minute 20 seconds by the bottom. Iván Romeo of Movistar came to the front when Ineos ran out of riders and really piled on the pressure. He got it to 30 seconds as Abrahamsen led over the top but the peloton was still connected together with the exception of a small group containing Milan and Merlier, 20 seconds behind.
The attacking continued but Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek did a few very hard efforts following moves and had the attacking back under control. Alpecin-Deceuninck, Tudor Pro Cycling, and Picnic-PostNL had their sprinters in the peloton and they went to the front to force open a gap on the Milan/Merlier group but the fast men made it back with 76KM to go. The break's lead was cut to 30 seconds with all of the activity but they were able to extend it back out to 1 minute 15 seconds by the start of the Col de Tartaiguille at 47KM to go. Wout van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike jumped from the peloton with 2KM to climb but no one went with him. Van Aert got to 28 seconds behind the leaders by the top and was stuck in a chasse patate. He sat up with 35KM to go, just as the rain began to fall.
The chase got more serious with 30KM to go when Lotto and Picnic-PostNL got involved. Roads were soaked but Lidl-Trek did not let up the chase, mostly with Simmons and Thibau Nys, and they had the break within 30 seconds at 20KM to go. Abrahamsen attacked the break out of a roundabout with 11KM to go when the gap was down to 20 seconds. He rode the others off his wheel and was solo. Behind, the GC teams pushed to the front to stay safe but the sprinter's regained control and made the catch with 4.5KM to go. At 3KM, Bahrain Victorious, Lotto, and Jayco AlUla were organized at the front and were able to take the numerous wet roundabouts in the lead. Milan was moved up into position with 1,300M to go by Jasper Stuyven as Lotto put on more pressure.
A big crash brought down at least 15 riders directly under the 1KM to go banner and only 10 riders made it through. Davide Ballerini of XDS-Astana was dropped off by Yevgeniy Fedorov with over 300M to go and was a sitting duck because when Milan started his sprint, he blew passed the Italian and never looked back. Jordi Meeus of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe tried to challenge but couldn't come over the top and had to settle for second place. Tobias Lund Andresen took third place for Picnic-PostNL who, as a team, have done an exceptional job at always having someone present to contest for a win in this Tour. Milan now has a much better shot at the Green Jersey after securing 61 points by taking fifth at the intermediate sprint and winning the stage, giving him some breathing space over Tadej Pogačar.
None of the GC riders came down in the crash and the times for the top 10 are as they were this morning.
Tags: Tour de France, 2025, July, Stage 17, Tour de France 2025, Bollène, Valence, Vincenzo Albanese, Jonas Abrahamsen, Mathieu Burgaudeau, Quentin Pacher, Axel Laurance, Jonathan Milan, Iván Romeo, Quinn Simmons, Wout van Aert, Thibau Nys, Jasper Stuyven, Davide Ballerini, Yevgeniy Fedorov, Jordi Meeus, Tobias Lund Andresen