López wins the queen stage – Roglic extends his lead on the roof of the tour – sport

• Primoz Roglic finishes stage 17 of the Tour de France in second place behind the winner of the day Miguel Ángel López.
• In the general classification, the Slovenian extends his lead to his first rival Tadej Pogacar, who is third.
• The trilogy of the Alps comes to an end on Thursday with a 175 kilometer stage to La Roche-sur-Foron.

Primoz Roglic had to leave the victory of the day on the 2304 m high Col de la Loze to the Colombian Miguel Ángel López (Astana). But the Slovenian from the Jumbo Visma team should be able to overcome that. In the toughest climb of this year’s tour, he held off his fiercest competitor, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), and was able to make a preliminary decision on the roof of the tour.

Roglic crossed the finish line 15 seconds after the winner of the day López, but 15 seconds ahead of Pogacar. The advantage of the Slovenian general leader over his young compatriot is now 57 seconds.

While Roglic is still on tour in the yellow jersey, Pogacar picked up the best young professional’s white jersey and polka dot jersey. The 21-year-old replaced the previous leader in mountain prices, Benoit Cosnefroy, and is now 3 points ahead of Roglic in second place in this ranking.

Elimination race on the final climb

On the final 21.5 km long ascent with more than 1600 meters of elevation gain, the decisive phase began about 3.5 km before the finish line. Lopez attacked on the steepest stretch and was able to get away. For the 2016 Tour de Suisse winner, it was the first stage victory at the Grande Boucle.

Numerous riders in the standings, however, had to be shot down, including Rigoberto Urán, who had to give up his 3rd place in the overall standings to the day’s winner López.

The 168 km long stage 16 was set up by a breakaway group of five men around Richard Carapaz. The current winner of the Ineos team Giro could dream of winning the day up to 3 kilometers before the finish. Defending champion Egan Bernal left the tour early Wednesday morning. One day’s victory would have been balm to Ineos’s battered soul.

So it goes

After two grueling days in the Alps, Thursday follows another steep section from Méribel to La Roche-sur-Foron. There are 5 mountain classifications in the 175 kilometers, including one of the highest categories, the Plateau des Glières.

The last 2 kilometers of this climb, which are covered by a gravel road, can be difficult. A defect could have far-reaching consequences here.