Chapter 383 191: The Last Highlight of the Tour de France and the Answer to Be Revealed

Unsurprisingly, Philipsen of the Alpecin Team claimed another victory, providing a perfect capstone to his team's Tour.

Stage 17 would run from Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux to Superdévoluy, a total distance of 177.8 km.

It was a stage with a steady, gradual incline for its entire length, with a total elevation gain of just over 3,000 meters.

However, the UAE Team, which was controlling the peloton, had no intention of chasing the breakaway group. Consequently, the stage held no significance for any of the general classification contenders.

The EF Education Team had always been one of the most aggressive teams in forming breakaways on mountain and hilly stages.

In the first two weeks of the race, they had frantically tried to break away, but always fell just short of a stage win.

Luckily, Carapaz put in a heroic performance today and ultimately came out on top, finally getting the team a piece of the pie in this year's Tour de France.

As for the peloton containing Huang Chong, they finished almost seven and a half minutes behind Carapaz.

On the other hand, Quick Step Team's Evenepoel made a small push on the final Third Category climb, gaining a 10-second advantage over Huang Chong.

But to Huang Chong, this time gap was too insignificant to matter. He couldn't even be bothered to respond, lest he waste his energy for nothing.

After all, from his perspective, it didn't matter unless it was Vingegaard attacking and gaining time on him.

The sole mission his team had given him now wasn't to chase Pogačar, but to staunchly defend against any potential counterattack from Vingegaard.

After all, the gap between him and Vingegaard was a mere 33 seconds.

A gap like that could easily be overturned on a mountain stage.

For Stage 18, he and the rest of the peloton would ride from Gap to Barcelonnette, a total distance of 179.5 km.

This stage's total elevation gain wasn't much different from the previous day's, also coming in at just over 3,000 meters.

However, the climbs were significantly more complex than in Stage 17; the entire route was an unrelenting series of ascents and descents.

It also featured far more categorized climbs.

Perhaps because the UAE Team had intentionally let the breakaway go the day before, breakaway specialists saw their last chance to contend for a stage victory. As a result, today's breakaway group was the largest and most star-studded of this year's Tour de France.

A total of 36 riders made it into the breakaway.

Of course, there were no GC contenders in the group; otherwise, the UAE Team would have been forced to chase it down frantically.

To ensure they could secure the overall victory in the final three days of racing, the UAE Team began to ride with extreme caution, wanting to prevent their leader from expending any unnecessary energy.

After all, with the Tour de France nearing its end, they didn't want to screw up at the crucial moment.

But with Lotto Team's Campenaerts winning the last hilly stage, the final three race days of the Tour—reserved for the general classification battle—were about to officially kick off.

And as anyone with eyes could see, the focus of these last three days of racing was no longer the fight for the overall championship, but the battle for second place.

Particularly after Stage 17, the current top ten in the general classification were as follows:

1. Pogačar, 74:45:27

2. Huang Chong, +1:51

3. Vingegaard, +2:22

4. Evenepoel, +4:06

5. Almeida, +12:57

6. Landa, +13:24

7. C. Rodríguez, +13:30

8. Adam Yates, +15:41

9. Ciccone, +17:51

10. Derrick Gee, +18:15

...

It was clear that the gap between Huang Chong and Vingegaard was precarious. Who between the two of them would ultimately secure second place in the final standings?

This would be the final great spectacle of this year's Tour de France, and the last question waiting to be answered!