Tour de France 2017: Stage 20-21
by Katie Haskins
Stage type: Individual Time Trial
Length: 22.5 km/14 miles
Route: Marseille to Marseille
Today’s weather for the time trial is sunny. So the crashes that occurred during the last time trial were non-existent and all riders got to the finish. The day started with Taylor Phinney, who almost caught the man who left the start house first, setting the time to beat. He got a little bit of time in the leader’s seat until Maciej Bodnar came across in 28:15. This time would hold up as the fastest of the day.
The last several riders, specifically Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran, knew that they had to do the ride of their lives. Chris Froome is a very good time trialist, as indicated by his 3rd place on the stage, only 6 seconds behind Bodnar. Bardet took a lot of risks, cutting corners, almost running into barriers as he used as much as the road as possible just to keep his speed up. Uran did clip the barrier as he came into the final few meters of the race. Thankfully he just bounced off and got right back into the race, even though he had to scrub all his speed. Froome did so well, he almost caught Bardet, who started two minutes ahead of Froome, at the line.
This is the current leader board.
- Chris Froome 83:55:16
- Rigoberto Uran +:54
- Romain Bardet +2:20
- Mikel Landa +2:21
- Fabio Aru +3:55
Tour de France 2017: Stage 21
Stage type: Road race – sprint finish
Length: 013 km/64 miles
Route: Montegeron to Paris
After 3450 km/2200 miles, only seven of the 22 teams are complete, 167/198 riders and 53 categorized climbs, we’ve finally reached Paris. Today’s stage is mostly ceremonial. At the end of the neutral start, there was no breakaway that tried to form. In fact, no one broke from the peloton until they reached the Champs-Elysees. A 9 rider breakaway formed, but only got about 15 seconds. They were brought back with about 12 km/7.3 miles to go. There was a light rain, but it thankfully let up and didn’t disrupt the race as the cobblestones are treacherous dry, even worse when wet. The final kilometers were a race for the sprinters. Dylan Groenewegen crossed the line first in 2:25:39. Chris Froome officially wins his 4th Tour de France in a row.
See you next July.
