Tour de France: Trentin solos to victory on stage 17 in Gap

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Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) claimed victory on stage 17 of the Tour de France after soloing clear of the break on the road to Gap, while Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) retained the yellow jersey after a day of relative truce among the general classification contenders.

On a day of two races within a race, Trentin rode to his third stage victory at the Tour – he previously won in 2013 and 2014 – after punching his way clear of the breakaway group ahead of the final climb of the Col de la Sentinelle. Alaphilippe and the podium contenders, meanwhile, rolled home more than 20 minutes behind, content to spare themselves for the rigours to come in the Alps over the next three days.

Trentin was part of a 33-strong break that amassed an unassailable lead over the peloton on yet another day of soaring temperatures, and he proved the strongest and savviest of their number when the move began to fragment in the final hour of racing.

The Italian forced the initial split when he responded to Nils Politt's acceleration with a little over 30km to go. Now operating from a group of ten riders that also included Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) and dangerman Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Trentin seized his opportunity when he attacked forcefully with 14km remaining, just before the category 3 haul up the Sentinelle.

He began the ascent with a 10-second buffer over the chasers, and he proceeded to extend that advantage to half a minute on the 5km ascent. Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis) attempted a lone pursuit on the lower part of the climb and he was caught and then passed by the effervescent Asgreen over the summit, which came with 8.5km to go. Asgreen had contributed little to the workload of the original break as he was there primarily to police the move on behalf of the maillot jaune Alaphilippe, and Trentin had pinpointed the Dane as the man to watch in the finale.

Asgreen could make no inroads on the descent, however, as Trentin rode into Gap with 37 seconds to spare to claim Mitchelton-Scott's fourth stage win of this Tour after Daryl Impey's triumph in Brioude and Simon Yates' Pyrenean brace.

Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) won the sprint for 3rd, 41 seconds down, just ahead of Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Gorka Izagirre (Astana) and Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), while the remnants of the original move followed home.

"I was scared of Asgreen and I was right because he finished second after getting a free ride in the break," Trentin said afterwards. "It was really an emotional finish because I've only won two races alone in my whole career before now. Doing it here on the Tour de France on this finish line, winning against this group, it was amazing."

After whittling the unwieldy original group down to more manageable dimensions, Trentin felt he could take advantage of the ongoing uneasiness of their collaboration in the finale.

"I knew there was no collaboration and I thought with maybe a ten-second gap, they'd start to watch each other and then maybe I could finish it off," Trentin said. "I took ten seconds, which was enough to take the climb on my own and it was probably the most important thing to stay at my pace and not have to follow anyone."

There were no accelerations among the general classification contenders when they tackled the Col de la Sentinelle some distance behind Trentin et al. The only frissons came when Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) and Luke Rowe (Ineos) squabbled over position at the head of the bunch. The German appeared to veer into Rowe's path on the lower slopes of the climb, though both riders had made their peace by the finish. "We rode the last 10k together," Rowe said. "No stress. We shook hands at the finish."

How it unfolded

With only the trio of stages in the Alps and the grand finale on the Champs-Élysées to follow, Wednesday's stage offered the final opportunity for a hefty chunk of the peloton to make an impression on this Tour, and most of their number appeared to be on the offensive in the rapid opening hour once the race was flagged away from the shadow of the imposing Roman aqueduct, the Pont du Gard.

Some 34 riders eventually had their day passes stamped and were allowed to escape the clutches of the peloton: Daniel Oss and Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe), Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Omar Fraile, Gorka Izagirre and Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana), Simon Clarke and Tom Scully (EF Education First), Chris Juul-Jensen and Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Greg van Avermaet and Michael Schär (CCC), Sven Erik Bystrom, Rui Costa, Sergio Henao and Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates), Bauke Mollema, Thomas Skujins and Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Nicolas Roche (Sunweb), Natnael Berhane, Jesús Herrada, Anthony Pérez and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis), Thomas de Gendt and Jens Keukeleire (Lotto-Soudal), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Xandro Meurisse and Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Edvald Boasson Hagen and Ben King (Dimension Data).

Total Direct Energie were notable absentees from the move and their riders massed at the head of the peloton to keep the gap at two minutes before eventually relenting, realising that the pursuit would be a costly one in temperatures soared of 37°C.

The break's lead extended gradually thereafter despite the loss of Magnus Cort, who was forced out of the move by a puncture. With 100km remaining, their buffer was up to 10 minutes, and it was long since apparent that the winner would come from their number.

A short but heavy rain shower offered some respite from the intense heat ahead of the finale, where Nils Politt kickstarted the attacking with 34km to go. The German's acceleration was a strong one, but he missed the decisive split that formed shortly afterwards, when Trentin, Laengen, King, Périchon, Van Avermaet, Izagirre, Scully, Asgreen, Gougeard and Oss forged clear. Trentin would outmanoeuvre to claim the spoils, despite Asgreen's late pursuit.

Asgreen will be pressed into action once again on Thursday as he rides in defence of Alaphilippe's yellow jersey. Alaphilippe still has 1:35 in hand on Geraint Thomas (Ineos), 1:47 on Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) and 1:50 on Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), but he will face a robust test on the Vars, Izoard and Galibier.

"I hope I will have some energy left for the next three days in the Alps, it's for sure going to be a tough and hard day," said Asgreen, who laughed when asked to describe the challenge on stage 18 to Valloire: "Hard – and long."

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