The 2025 Tour de France continued Wednesday with stage 17 – a 160.4-kilometer ride in hilly terrain on a route from Bollene to Valence. Two Category 4 climbs would have to be conquered, and breakaway optimists would likely aim for a stage victory, while the sprinters in the peloton would be hoping for a mass sprint across the finish line in Valence. With the 2025 Tour de France drawing closer to its end, few opportunities remained for the many teams that had yet to secure a stage victory in the race before its conclusion in Paris on Sunday.

Stage 17 got off to a fast start after the riders had left the start town of Bollene. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility), Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies), Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), and Vincenzo Albanese of EF Education-EasyPost formed the first successful breakaway group of the day, while Axel Laurance (Ineos-Grenadiers) launched a solo attack from the main peloton to try to bridge the gap to the front group.

American National Champion Quinn Simmons of Lidl-Trek led the chase effort at the front of a stretched-out main peloton and the front quartet had a lead of 02:36 minutes with 145 kilometers remaining. Laurance was in between the two groups and still had one minute to the front quartet he was hoping to join.

Frenchman Laurance failed to bridge to the front group, as he had also been unable to do in a recent stage.

The breakaway quartet continued its hard work in front and had a lead of two minutes over the main peloton with 115 kilometers of the stage remaining.

Louis Barre of Intermarche-Wanty crashed and appeared concussed. The Frenchman received medical attention at the side of the road.

The breakaway quartet reached the intermediate sprint, and Jonas Abrahamsen was the first rider to cross the line. The Norwegian rider secured the most points. The main peloton reached the intermediate sprint two minutes later and it was Jonathan Milan who again showed his dominance while wearing the green points jersey – or rather skinsuit.

The front group approached Col du Pertuis, which was the first categorized climb of the day. Jonas Abrahamsen was the first rider to reach the summit, while pure sprinters such as Jonathan Milan and Tim Merlier were getting dropped from the rear end of the main peloton.

Some teams were eager to see Milan, Merlier and other sprinters excluded from the stage finale and increased the speed in the main peloton to keep the sprinters at a distance. Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers), Ivan Romeo (Movistar Team) and Matteo Trentin (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) were some of the riders who were pulling in the main peloton.

With a split having occurred in the peloton, a chase group featuring Milan was spearheaded by Simmons while chasing the first peloton group, which was led by riders from Alpecin-Deceuninck and Tudor Pro Cycling Team.

The advantage of the four-man breakaway had been reduced to fifty seconds after the hectic events in the main peloton, which likely had a discouraging effect on the frontmen after ninety hard kilometers in the saddles.

Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos-Grenadiers) crashed with Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) and other riders in the rear part of the main peloton. Alaphilippe was obviously dismayed while trying to get up from the road ditch.

Wout van Aert attacked solo from the main peloton on Col de Tartaiguille. The Belgian rider was hoping to use the Category 4 climb as a launch ramp for a serious attempt at taking the stage victory.

Van Aert was thirty seconds behind the front quartet with 41 kilometers remaining. Albanese was setting a fast pace in the front group as they were clearly not interested in Van Aert joining the group and becoming an additional challenger for the stage win. The main peloton was chasing 25 seconds behind the Belgian star rider.

Van Aert was finding it increasingly difficult to bridge the gap to the front group and he was increasingly close to the main peloton rather than the front group. It had started raining and the four frontmen were now firing on all engines to increase their advantage and keep the main peloton at bay.

Van Aert got reeled in by the chasing main peloton where the speed had been significantly increased by the sprinter teams, including Soudal-QuickStep and Lidl-Trek. The wet roads were making it a less joyous experience for the cyclists in both the front quartet and the main peloton and riders would have to take care not to get ill after more than two weeks of exhausting racing in the greatest bike race of them all.

The front quintet still featured Albanese, Pacher, Burgaudeau, and Abrahamsen fifteen kilometers from the finish line in Valence, but the breakaway optimists were no more than twenty-four seconds ahead of the chasing pack where Lidl-Trek, Lotto-Caps, and Alpecin-Deceuninck were making an effort for the sprinters, while Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates were protecting GC favorites Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar.

Abrahamsen launched an attack from the front group and Burgaudeau joined the Norwegian rider but blew a fuse. Albanese tried to make the leap while the Uno-X frontman pressed on. Ten kilometers remained and twenty-two seconds separated Abrahamsen and the main peloton.

Solo remaining frontman Jonas Abrahamsen got caught by the furious peloton 4.3 kilometers from the finish line and the sprinter teams started setting up their sprint trains for the mass sprints experts. Bahrain-Victorious and Jayco-Alula riders were leading with Lotto-Caps.

A crash occurred in the front of the peloton when it entered the final kilometer. The crash brought down Biniam Girmay, Tim Merlier and other favorites. Approximately ten riders would now sprint for the stage victory.

Jordi Meeus launched his sprint and Jonathan Milan responded as did Tobias Lund Andresen. Jonathan Milan proved the fastest rider on the day and is the winner of stage 17 of Tour de France 2025. The Lidl-Trek rider won the stage ahead of Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), while Tobias Lund Andresen completed the stage podium for Team Picnic-PostNL.

“I’m really happy and without words. I’ve survived the Tour thanks to my teammates and without them I would have had gotten dropped in one of the mountain stages,” stage winner Jonathan Milan explained to Roadcycling.com after the stage.

“Today was a tough stage and we tried to control it together with other teams. When I got dropped my mates brought me back. I got a bit scared also and what a fantastic team victory this is, and I am super happy for all of us. We still have some tough climbing days ahead of us, but my goal now is to keep the green jersey. I will keep fighting all the way to Paris,” Milan continued.

Tadej Pogacar remains general classification leader following today’s stage. Jonas Vingegaard is 04:15 minutes behind in second place, while Florian Lipowitz is in third place, 09:03 behind the leader. Oscar Onley is fourth in the GC, Primoz Roglic is fifth, Kevin Vauquelin is sixth, while Felix Gall is seventh. Tobias Halland Johannessen is eighth, Ben Healy remains ninth, while Carlos Rodriguez completes the GC top ten.

The Tour de France will continue Thursday with stage 18 - a 171.5-kilometer ride in very mountainous terrain on a route from Vif to Courchevel Col de La Loze. The stage route will feature no less than three Beyond Category climbs, including the legendary Col de la Madeleine with its beautiful name. Expect the GC favorites to engage in a decisive battle in the penultimate climbing stage opportunity of this year’s Tour.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete coverage from the 2025 Tour de France.