Jasper Philipsen wins chaotic Tour de France stage 17 – Tour de France

Tour de France 2026

Stage 17

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) finally achieved his main goal in the 2026 Tour de France, taking the victory in a chaotic stage 17 over Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) from a large breakaway.

The hard-fought win came after green jersey leader Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) blew the race apart with unbridled aggression, winning the intermediate sprint but fading in the mayhem of the bunch sprint to finish eighth.

Earlier in the stage, Pedersen bridged across to a 19-man breakaway after a frantic first half, successfully holding off his green jersey rival for the intermediate sprint with 28km to go. But the Belgian’s chasing group far outnumbered the Dane’s, and the two came together to battle for the stage win.

While Pedersen slotted onto Philipsen’s wheel in the final turn, he couldn’t hold on as the Belgian’s teammate Mathieu van der Poel started the final leadout, and was washed away as the sprint opened up

For all his efforts, Pedersen’s lead in the points classification over Philipsen was reduced to just seven points at the end of the day.

The race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates XRG) was more than happy to let the sprinters take centre stage, and rolled across the line with the rest of the top GC riders 8:46 behind the winner to maintain his lead of 4:32 over Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Isaac del Toro, after a brief scare being dropped in the early part of the stage, finished in the same group to keep third overall at 6:51.

Philipsen was overjoyed to finally get a stage win after two weeks of fighting.

“After such a roller coaster of emotions in this Tour de France, I had to wait until stage 17. I prepared very well – I was in the shape of my life, but the first 12 days were just horrible, and I couldn’t find myself. I couldn’t find the feeling I was hoping for. And after 17 stages to take the victory, it’s really one for the team that keep on believing in me,” the Belgian said.

“This one is for them to keep on believing and just fighting back until stage 17.”

Pedersen was bitterly disappointed after putting so much into the stage only to lose ground, but like Philipsen, said he would keep fighting all the way to the finish in Paris.

“Yeah, this was a proper shit day. Let’s say it like this: it was an expensive day on points, so super disappointed,” Pedersen said.”

It doesn’t work to be impressive and not get the job done. So in the end, it’s a bad day, and it’s a big loss of points – that’s not what we hoped. But it is what it is, and we have to deal with this situation and hope to score points on the next days.”

With Lidl-Trek having pinned stage 17 of the Tour de France at the top of their to-win list for green jersey leader Mads Pedersen, the first half of the 175-kilometre journey from Chambéry to Voiron was positively frantic.

An early move came from perpetual attacker Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarché) and Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), but two were never going to hold off the furious pace.

The race came back together on the Côte de Bassa as Netcompany Ineos tried to get another escape started with Kévin Vauquelin and Josh Tarling, but the green jersey holder himself mowed them down.

The mayhem sparked a crash that affected GC contenders Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), but both were quickly back up and riding.

A four-man move briefly went clear on the Côte de Rossillon, but again were reeled in as polka dot jersey renter Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) claimed more mountain points.

On the longest climb, the Col des Prés, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) tried to pull a group away, but Pedersen himself worked to ensure the race came back together after the top.

The Côte de Saint-Jean d’Arvey was next, and a split in the peloton with Isaac del Toro on the losing end led to a brief lull as the race came back together before exploding again on an uncategorised climb after the descent.

When the dust cleared, a group of 16 riders went clear without Pedersen or his green jersey rivals, but the vicious opening had gotten rid of Biniam Girmay (NSN) and a load of other sprinters.

The breakaway was high quality but even so, they couldn’t make huge gains. Egan Bernal and Josh Tarling (Netcompany Ineos), Tiesj Benoot (Decathlon CMA CGM), Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), Pablo Castrillo and Einer Rubio (Movistar), Guillaume Martin Guyonnet and Clement Braz (Groupama-FDJ), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech), Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep), Rick Pluimers (Tudor), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla), and Per Strand Hagenes (Visma-Lease a Bike) were up there but more intrigue was to come.

Because Olav Kooij held onto the main peloton and Lidl-Trek had a man up the road, Decathlon CMA CGM took charge of chasing the breakaway for their sprinter as Visma-Lease a Bike sent Matteo Jorgenson after the leaders along with Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mathis le Berre (TotalEnergies).

When the trio joined the first peloton they only had half a minute as Uno-X Mobility began helping chase the leaders down. But when the gap was down to 20 seconds, Pedersen launched a huge attack and went across to the lead group with 10 others including Kooij, leaving Philipsen in pursuit with 13 companions and 65km to go.

Once the green jersey joined, Simmons put in a huge effort to keep Philipsen’s chasing group at bay and then Pedersen forced another split in the attack group still with 30km to go before the intermediate sprint.

With Pedersen was Healy, Michał Kwiatkowski (Netcompany Ineos), Stuyven, Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Engelhardt, and with all six cooperating, they opened up a full minute on the chase and over three on the yellow jersey group.

With 42km to go, Philipsen linked up with Van der Poel in the first chase and had a 1:16 gap to Pedersen but the now 38-man group wouldn’t make the catch before the intermediate sprint with 28km to go. Pedersen walked away with the 25 points uncontested while Philipsen had to settle for 7 points from the chase.

Stuyven attacked after the sprint and there wasn’t an immediate reaction. Instead, Pedersen eased up and allowed the Philipsen group to gain ground and catch them with 15km to go, trusting in his abilities in with the uphill run into the sprint.

Jayco-AlUla led the chase of Stuyven but the Belgian was putting up a solid resistance, heading into the final 5km with 20 seconds. But the unnamed climb got in the Belgian’s way and he was caught with 3.7km to go.

Hagenes tried to preempt the sprint with a late attack but was marked by Pedersen’s teammate Derek Gee-West. When they were caught, Simmons took charge as Pedersen followed wheels.

But Philipsen had a secret weapon in Van der Poel, and when the Dutchman surged out of the final turn, Pedersen had no answer and could only watch as Philipsen waltzed away with the stage win and closed the gap in the points classification.

Thursday’s stage 18 of the Tour takes the race into the Alps. It’s the first of three alpine stages, with 3,900 metres of elevation gain across 185.2 kilometres. The race finishes in the ski resort of Orcières-Merlette after a 7.1-kilometre ascent at an average gradient of 6.7%.

Six editions ago, the Tour last visited Orcières-Merlette. On that occasion, a group of around twenty riders sprinted for victory in the ski resort. Those were different times, with Primoz Roglic getting the better of Tadej Pogacar.

The riders set off from Voiron to head south towards Grenoble. Just before reaching the city, they turn right and tackle the climb to Engins: 11.4 kilometres at 5.4%. The climbing isn’t over in the village, though, as a long false flat continues all the way to Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte. From there, the route drops to the banks of the Drac river.

After roughly 10 kilometres in the valley, the route starts to climb again. The ascent to Monteynard is 9.7 kilometres long and averaging 5%. Again, there’s no real descent afterwards; instead, the course stays at around 900 metres altitude for tens of kilometres, over constantly undulating terrain. The roads never get properly steep. The Côte des Terrasses is the toughest stretch in that phase: 3.4 kilometres and averaging 6.6%.

From La Fare-en-Champsaur onwards, with 32 kilometres remaining, the road rises almost continuously all the way to the line. Inititially at very shallow gradients, with the Côte de Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes standing out as it rises at 6.8% for 2.8 kilometres. From that point, the route is identical to 2020, so the finale is an exact replica.

Whether the outcome will be the same — a sprint from a reduced peloton — remains to be seen. Back then it was stage 4, and many riders were still keeping their powder dry. This time, with only two mountain stages left after Orcières-Merlette, the race situation will be very different.

On the other hand, it could pan out the same way, as the final climb isn’t especially tough. The 7.1-kilometre ascent serves up an average gradient of 6.7%, and it’s remarkably even.

Orcières-Merlette is best remembered for Luis Ocaña’s audacious attack in the 1971 Tour. After riding alone for 60 kilometres, he finished 9 minutes ahead of Eddy Merckx and Joop Zoetemelk. Ocaña would later crash out of the race, allowing Merckx to claim his third Tour de France title.

Stage 17 result:

1. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) in 03:41:13
2. Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco-AlUla)
3. OlavKooij (Decathlon CMA CGM)
4. Lewis Askey (NSN Pro Cycling)
5. Rick Pluimers (Tudor Pro Cycling)
6. Clément Russo (Groupama-FDJ United)
7. Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarché)
8. MadsPedersen (Lidl-Trek)
9. Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla)
10. AaronGate (XDS Astana) all at same time

General Classification:

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 60:04:17
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Redu Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +4:32
3. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +6:51
4. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +7:11
5. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +9:22
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek,+10:14
7. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain-Victorious, +12:50
8. Tom Pidcock (Gbr), Pinarello Q36.5, +12:58
9. Jordan Jegat (Fra) ToralEnergies, +14:04
10. Yannis Voisard (Sui) Tudor Pro Cycling, +24:18