The 17th stage of the Tour de France 2015 took place on July 22, 2015, one day after the second day of rest. It led from Digne-les-Bains over 161 kilometers to Pra-Loup . There were a total of five mountain ratings, two of them in the third category, two in the second category and one in the first category. The fourth of five mountain classifications was the Col d'Allos, a first category mountain classification. The cyclist who reached this summit first received the 5,000 euro souvenir Henri Desgrange , as this was the highest point of the 2015 tour. The stage arrival in Pra-Loup was a mountain finish in the second category. There was also an intermediate sprint after 111 kilometers in Beauvezer . The 17th stage counted as a high mountain stage. There were 168 drivers at the start.
After the start of the stage, there were several attacks and brief escape groups that were unable to break away. In between, Nairo Quintana , who was second in the overall standings, even attacked and drove in a leading group, which was quickly caught up again. At the first mountain classification in the third category, Tejay van Garderen fell back due to illness, the other favorites were ahead in a group of around 50 people. Before the second mountain classification, a top group consisting of 28 drivers was able to form. She had about two minutes ahead of the first group of favorites on the mountain. The drivers represented in the escape group were (in alphabetical order according to teams):
Alberto Contador attacked on the climb to Col de la Colle-Saint-Michel (second category) , and later Alejandro Valverde also caught up with him. Both were caught up with the Sky team. Tejay van Garderen had to give up the tour as third placed because of his illness. Tony Gallopin fell back as he did on the last stage. Michael Rogers , Adriano Malori and Jan Bárta drove out of the field and set out to chase the leading group that drove towards the intermediate sprint. She was 3:30 minutes ahead of the field and 2:30 minutes ahead of the three pursuers. Vaugrenard won the sprint ahead of Degenkolb and Sagan.
Shortly after the interim classification, Simon Geschke was able to pull away and quickly gain a lead over the other outliers. He was now on the climb to the Col d'Allos . The former top group disintegrated on the rise, from which Geschke benefited and was able to expand his lead. Mathias Frank, Steven Kruijswijk, Adam Yates, Thibaut Pinot and Andrew Talansky now drove out of the chasing group and tried to collect gifts. He was the first to cross the Col d'Allos, winning the souvenir Henri Desgrange and a cash prize of 5000 euros. The direct pursuer of Geschke was Pinot, who reached the summit in second, about a minute behind, but hit the asphalt with the pedal on the descent and fell. Further back there were only eight classification drivers in the front group: Vincenzo Nibali , Robert Gesink , Alejandro Valverde, Nairo Quintana, Alberto Contador, Geraint Thomas , Michele Scarponi and Chris Froome . They were over nine minutes behind Geschke. Nibali and Quintana attacked, only Froome and Valverde could follow. Alberto Contador had a defect after a fall and had to take over the bike from Peter Sagan, losing a lot of time on the other riders.
In the final climb to Pra-Loup , Simon Geschke was about 50 seconds ahead of Andrew Talansky, who had passed Pinot. Geschke was able to bring this lead to the finish and won the stage ahead of Talansky and Rigoberto Urán. In the end, Nairo Quintana and Chris Froome attacked each other several times, the other class riders could no longer follow them. Alberto Contador crossed the finish line more than two minutes behind Froome.
Scoring
Intermediate sprint in Beauvezer after 111 km at 1156 m
Laurent Didier (TFR): did not start the stage (illness)
Nathan Haas (TCG): Task during the stage (illness)
Michał Kwiatkowski (EQS): Task during the stage (exhaustion)