Primoz Roglic solos to win tough Galibier stage
Fabio Aru loses time as Rigoberto Uran and Romain Bardet move up to 2nd and 3rd on GC behind Froome with only 27 seconds separating them ahead of tomorrow's Col d'Izoard mountain top finish
LottoNL-Jumbo's Primoz Roglic has won the 17th stage, the Slovenian launched an attack during the ascent of the Galibier and solo'ed to victory on the descent.
The first stage in the Alps was 183 kilometres long and featured two hors-category climbs, one of the first category and second category with 57 kms of ascent.
An early crash saw Steven Cummings (Dimension Data), Warren Barguil (Sunweb) and Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) hit the deck. Kittel continued on but later abandoned the stage having lost too much time.
30 riders went ahead during the crash and Michael Matthews (Sunweb) and Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) attacked.
Meanwhile, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) attacked from the peloton and successfully managing to catch the large chasing group.
The front group was shrinking as the riders climbed the Col du Telegraphe.
On the last ascent, of the mighty Galibier, it was just Contador, Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), Mathias Frank (AG2R La Mondiale), Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Darwin Atapuma (UAE-Team Emirates) left in the lead.
On the Galibier, Roglic launched an attack as Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) attacked the yellow jersey group. Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) also attacked forcing the rest of the favourites including Froome to chase.
Fabio Aru (Astana) was distanced from the yellow group attacks trying to get back to the Yellow Jersey group and avoid losing his podium spot.
Roglic became the first Slovenian to win a stage in the Tour de France.
Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) crossed the finish line second ahead of Froome, Bardet and Barguil.
Aru lost 30 seconds and slipped to fourth place.
Froome leads the General Classification, closely followed by Uran and Bardet only 27 seconds behind.
Tomorrow's stage is a mountain top finish on the top of the legendary climb of the Cold d'Izoard.
With such small time gaps, the GC race could go any way from here to the the Champs-Élysées, where the race finishes on Sunday.
2017 Tour de France Top Ten Results
1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 5:07:41
2 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:13
3 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
4 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
5 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb
6 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:16
7 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:43
8 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:01:44
9 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates
10 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
2017 Tour de France GC after Stage 16
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 73:27:26
2 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:27
3 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
4 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:53
5 Mikel Landa (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:24
6 Daniel Martin (Irl) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:37
7 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:04:07
8 Louis Meintjes (RSA) UAE Team Emirates 0:06:35
9 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:07:45
10 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb 0:08:52