Tour de France 2018: Stage 17 preview

It's a pity that Alberto Contador isn't racing anymore. He would have loved a mountain stage designed purely for attackers. He lost the 100km-long stage 13 from Saint Girons to Foix to Warren Barguil last year, but fired up the race in a way that thrilled fans.

It's been 30 years since such a short stage featured on the Tour route: in 1988, there was a 38km stage from Tarbes to Pau, but it was a morning half-stage, won by Dutchman Adri van der Poel (and came 10 years after Bernard Hinault had set the peloton on strike to protest against such split stages on the same day). Later that day in 1988, the peloton raced a flatter stage from Pau to Bordeaux – although, at 210km, it was hardly short.

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