Tour de France stage 17 LIVE: Classic breakaway showdown expected on decisive day for green points jersey

Côte de Bassa

The two early breakaway were both reeled in at the foot of the first categorised climb of stage 17, the Côte de Bassa (1.5km at 5.5%). Alaphilippe and Healy were both in the group that came across to them, but with almost half of the peloton on the more this afternoon, the race was quickly back together with 157.5km to go.

Netcompany Ineos are really looking to get something out of today's stage, knowing they likely won't be able to make much impact in the high mountains. They've had Kévin Vauquelin and Josh Tarling on the attack on the first climb.

Vauquelin was solo for the opening part of the climb, as the peloton lulled momentarily. Approaching the final 500 metres, though, he was passed by a group led by green jersey Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and polka-dot jersey Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep). The Frenchman took the maxmimum points at the crest, but it's almost straight onto the next climb with the peloton still together.

The two early leaders on stage 17, Abrahamsen and Veistroffer. The peloton is exploding behind them with Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost) Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) among the latest groups trying to break away.

Davide Ballerini (XDS Astana) has come down in a crash, sliding out after a roundabout. As a result, there are splits in the peloton.

That big chasing group came back together to the main bunch, which is still. all in one long line as the attacks continue to fly.

165km to go

It's still Veistroffer and Abrahamsen leading the race on stage 17, and they have a slim lead of around 20 seconds on the peloton. Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-Easypost) and Marco Haller (Tudor) had set off in pursuit, but a huge group has just attacked off the front of the peloton and joined them.

Massive crowds welcoming the riders in this early phase of racing.

The earliest moves came from Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility). Behind them, it was obvious more riders were ready to go – the front of the peloton very much resembling a coiled sprint right now.

There's some tricky road furniture to navigate just to add to the expected madness of this stage start. The riders are heading briefly downhill out of Chambéry, before they reach the foot of a long section of climbing with 163km to go.

Tour de France Stage 17 underway

After a long section of neutralised riding to build the tension even more, the 17th stage of the Tour is underway, and fireworks are expected. Don't take your eyes off it.

Pogačar's expectations for stage 17

Here's what race leader Tadej Pogačar had to say at the start, and he's expecting anything but an easy day, knowing full well how aggressive the opening two hours will likely be:

"Very hard start and hopefully an easier finish, but you never know. I think it's quite a difficult day in my opinion. It looks not so hard, but it's going to be a pain in the ass," said the Slovenian, though it sounds like UAE won't be overly involved if they don't have to be.

"We are close for team classification also, and it's something the guys would really like to have, but it's not the main priority of course, so we'll see what happens."

Unofficial start of stage 17

Riders are gone from the start line of stage 17 of the Tour de France in Chambéry! The flag should be dropped at kilometre 0 in around 15 minutes. From then on, expect major breakaway action all the way to the line.

No prizes for guessing which bus tends to be the busiest at each of the stage starts. Anything to get a peak at the yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar, but also the ultr-popular Isaac del Toro. Maybe only Decathlon CMA CGM's bus and the furore surrounding French hope Paul Seixas rivals this.

Just 10 minutes to go now until the unofficial start of stage 17. It's more blue skies and hot weather welcoming the riders to Chambéry on this Wednesday afternoon.

After the leaving the race following his stage 15 crash, Jonas Vingegaard has reportedly undergone successful surgery to his fractured collarbone. Despite the sadness of having to abandon the race, the Dane showed his leadership as he bid farewell to his teammates on Monday, with the remaining riders changing focus to chasing stages in these final five days:

'Make the best of it!' – Over an emotional burger and fries, Jonas Vingegaard encouraged his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates to go on the attack at the Tour de France

All of the riders are currently signing on at the start in Chambéry. You can watch the team presentation live before every stage on Le Tour's X account: Podium signature stage 17.

It was a bittersweet day for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe as they took victory, though, with last year's podium finisher and Evenepoel's co-leader Florian Lipowitz crashing out of the race. He suffered a fractured collarbone after coming down at high speed around a corner, leaving the Belgian to defend his second place without a second GC option.

Florian Lipowitz abandons the Tour de France after a heavy crash during the stage 16 time trial

If you missed any of the action from yesterday's 16th stage, it was a dramatic start to the final week with a back-to-back winner in the individual time trial:

Tour de France: Time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel destroys race against the clock and takes back-to-back wins on stage 16

Today's route

Here's a look at the profile today, which is listed as a flat stage by the Tour's official website, but the four categorised climbs in the first 60km of the route might have something to say about that.

Heading southwest from Chambéry down to Voiron, it's likely the final chance for the breakaway specialists to have their chance, with three brutal mountain stages and the finale in Paris likely to favour the top GC riders better.

A key point on the route is the positioning of the intermediate sprint in Colombe, where current green jersey points leader, Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), will be looking to defend against Alpecin-Premier Tech's Jasper Philipsen. But will either of them be able to make it and fight out the points available at the finish?

Lidl will be the favourites as Pedersen is the better climber and has already won from a breakaway this Tour, but Alpecin have Mathieu van der Poel as a second option for the stage if green looks impossible. Either way, it should be fast and explosive right from the flag drop at 13:30 CEST.

Good morning and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 17 of the Tour de France!