Tour de France: Zakarin wins atop Finhaut-Emosson

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Chris Froome (Team Sky) extended his overall lead at the Tour de France thanks to a late acceleration in tandem with former teammate Richie Porte (BMC) in the final kilometre of the steep climb to Finhaut-Emosson overlooking the breathtaking Lac d'Emosson dam and artificial lake high up in the Swiss-French Alps.

Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) won the stage with a solo attack after being in the break of the day. The Russian managed to distanced stage 15 winner Jarlinson Pantano (IAM Cycling) and polka-dot jersey wearer Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) and then fought his way up the final part of the 9% gradient alone.

The hard work of Froome's teammates controlled and tired the Briton's rivals and he joined Porte with a kilometre of the climb remaining. Quintana and Mollema both struggled to respond to the change of pace and clearly could not go with Froome. They lost precious seconds, as Porte moved up the GC.

Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) was the best at limiting his losses, giving up just eight seconds. Roman Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) lost 11 but Quintana – who first tried to go after Porte but then cracked - lost 28 seconds. He no longer appears to be Froome's biggest threat in this year's Tour de France.

Mollema lost 40 seconds after being spat out of the back in the final to kilometres.

Froome now leads Mollema by 2:27 in the general classification, with Yates at 2:53 and Quintana at 3:27. Bardet is fifth at 4:15. Porte's late charge helped lift him from seventh to sixth. He is now 4:27 behind his former teammate and has become the BMC team leader after Tejay van Garderen cracked early on the climb. He is now 17th overall, 23:03 down on Froome.

"I'm pretty happy with my day," he said.

"It's always difficult to know what will happen after a day of rest but I felt pretty good. I was completely surrounded by teammates. I wanted to stay up with the best and watch everyone, it was not planned to attack but I saw the opportunity to take time on my rivals and it worked, so I'm in a good position.

"Richie is one of the very best riders in the world. Today he again proved that he is in his place when he is fighting for a place on the podium. He made an incredible race.

"Things can still happen and tomorrow the time trial will be a big deal.”

Zakarin fractured his collarbone in a nasty crash on the descent of the Col dell'Agnello at the Giro d'Italia but recovered quickly and trained hard to ride the Tour de France. He was strong and determined on the climb up to the Emosson dam, taking his first-ever Tour de France victory.

Pantano finished 55 seconds back but took the most aggressive rider award on Colombia Independence Day. Majka was 30 seconds further back but collected a further haul of climber's points.

Zakarin does not know if he will be able to compete in the Rio Olympics but took a proud victory. He found a few words in English to enjoy his moment.

"I did my best today. I'm very happy now. Thanks to my teammates for the support. This result for me is no surprise because I try and win. It's a dream," he said.

More on this story:

• Tour de France stage 17 - Finish line quotes
• Tour de France stage 17 highlights - Video
• New FSA wireless groupset debuts at Tour de France

Tour de France stage 17 highlights video

The first big day in the Alps

The 184.5km stage through Switzerland to the edge of the Emosson dam was only the second mountaintop finish of this year's Tour de France and at the start everyone was aware of its importance, with riders tense and focused after enjoying the second rest day.

Berne said goodbye to the Tour de France and local hero Fabian Cancellara under blue skies, and temperatures into the thirties, with Spartacus lined up on the front next to Chris Froome and Peter Sagan.

The initial roll out was steady but the race soon ignited as riders tried to get away in the break of the day. Surprisingly nothing stuck for 50km, with the peloton flying down towards Thun. Nerves showed early with a crash that involved Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar). Sadly, the Spaniard was diagnosed with a fractured collarbone and was unable to continue.

The first hour was covered at a leg burning 51.8km/h.

After some curious attacks from Barguil and Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) that were kept in check, a break of eight managed to get away with 108km left to race. In the move were Tanel Kangert (Astana), Stef Clement and Jarlinson Pantano (IAM), Kristjian Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal), Rafal Majka and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff), Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R), Steve Morabito (FDJ), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Brice Feillu (Fortuneo-Vital Concept). A second group soon took off in pursuit, with Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), and Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) eventually closing the gap and joining the move with 67km to race.

Behind, Team Sky led the peloton, with Classics riders Luke Rowe and Ian Stannard doing the work on the front over the early climbs and rolling roads of Switzerland. However, Team Sky was happy to ride tempo, with the gap touching 12 minutes. A crash involving Shane Archbold (Bora-Argon 18) caused a scare in the peloton but he and other riders involved got back into the peloton.

The day's only intermediate sprint came after 150km, with Sagan taking maximum points to virtually wrap up his fifth green jersey.

The finale of the stage was a double whammy of climbing spread across 31km. The Col de la Forclaz came first and served to split the break and shake out the peloton. Sagan sat up and drifted back to the peloton, while Lutsenko and Gallopin accelerated away. The Frenchman was soon distanced but the Kazakh rider pushed on. However, others came after him and Majka made sure he took maximum points at the summit of the Forclaz.

The climb left just 40 riders in the Froome-group, as Astana set a painful but steady pace. Rolland was amongst those to be dropped, as was Tejay van Garderen (BMC) with 19km to go. The American seemed in serious trouble and was quickly distanced.

The brief descent was a chance for the riders to catch their breath but the 10.4km climb loomed large ahead of them.

Up front, the break split as the gradient kicked in. So did the peloton, with Froome losing Thomas and other riders, leaving him with just Landa, Poels and Henao to protect his yellow jersey. Nibali did a huge chunk of work on the front, setting the pace ahead of Diego Rosa and leader Fabio Aru.

Pantano and Majka were the first to go clear on the climb to the finish but then Zakarin made a move to go after them and soon managed to catch and pass them, with Pantano the last to lose his wheel. The lanky Russian suffered like crazy but dragged himself to the top and won by some eight minutes ahead of the Froome-group, which was locked in to their own battle.

The final attacks

The Astana team had tried to set up an attack from Fabio but first Nibali eased up withy 7.5km to go and Diego Rosa could only push for another kilometre. Aru wisely got back on the Team Sky train after that and saved his best for the finale. He finished just 19 seconds down on Froome and so moved up to eighth at 5:35.

Valverde woke up the race when he moved to the front and upped the pace but he didn't last long and then sat up as Team Sky set a relentless pace with Mikel Landa and especially Wout Poels, who controlled Valverde and even a concerted kick off the font by Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) with five kilometres to go.

Quintana's team seemed scared to move off Froome's wheel as everyone was just hanging on for dear life in the procession to the finish.

Porte –with his jersey blowing in the wind and with his usual out-of-the-saddle climbing style, was the first to break up the steady pace. He jumped and even Poels couldn't close the gap. He did led Froome close though and then the Briton kicked slightly to drop Quintana and the others and join forces with Porte.

The surges especially hurt Mollema, who had to fight for survival, as everyone else tried to limit their losses all the way to the line.

The mountain finish, and the first of three days in the Alps, did not inspire some great racing but did allow Froome to tighten his grip on the yellow jersey and strike a further blow to his rivals' moral.

He is expected to do it all over again on Thursday's 17km mountain time trial from Sallanches to Megeve.

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