Tour de France 2025 Stage 17 - Jonathan Milan wins his second stage as flamme rouge crash takes out Tim Merlier and others

Early intermediates tomorrow and Friday means it's reasonable to imagine he'll pick up sixty more, which would require Pogacar to take 133 over the next five stages. Unlike on flat stages, mountain finishes only offer 30 sprint points to the winner. It's not done and dusted but I agree with Robbie McEwen that it looks good.

But he's holding his arm and he looks very banged up. I don't think it will be a big surprise if he doesn't start tomorrow.

Of the riders left to contest it, Ballerini of Astana served as lead-out but it was Milan that everyone was watching. Arnaud De Lie had the Italian's wheel but may have come too close for comfort, perhaps even touching it and having to knock off his effort. When Milan found a gap and started his sprint there was no one else who could match him. Meeus did well to hold on for second but he was never closer than half a bike length.

They look grubby, but otherwise fine.

Just ahead of Jordi Meeus. Goodness me. Milan was in the group of about eight riders who either didn't go down in the crash or wasn't impeded by it. Merlier stayed up but he knew it was all over for him. How much that helped Milan we'll never know but the Italian Stallion has a second stage win and has taken the green jersey fight to Tadej Pogacar.

Right under the kite. Merlier among those caught out.

Which means they're into the outskirts of Valence. The roads are looking sketchier and sketchier. The last rider to win a Tour de France stage here was Mark Cavendish. Just FYI.

That must mean Groenewegen thinks he can do something. McEwen says the Dutch sprinter has good legs, just hasn't been willing to commit to the fight for position.

They aren't chasing Abrahamsen, it's about getting their leaders home safe. The co-acceleration has taken a chunk out of the gap, but there's no stopping him just yet.

And one by one they go pop. He's found an impressive reserve of power to go at 61kph after being out there all day long. Albanese is doing his best to stay with the Norwegian stage-winner.

Just 30 seconds in hand now. The bunch is riding hard when they can, but taking the corners very very carefully.

King Kelly was right and Carlton was wrong. The breakaway now has just over a minute's lead, and all signs point towards a full gas finish. A lot of pressure on Milan to deliver, and even more as the rain comes down. They're going to want to be careful on the roundabouts and road furniture now it's even more slippery.

That's French A Level in the early 00s for you. But yeah, it's raining already, and heavier as they near the finish. That could complicate things.

This is what we wanted to see. Carlton Kirby says it's a danger, but Sean disagrees. "I don't think it's too much of a danger," he says. Lidl-Trek are "still very much in control of affairs" and "can just leave him out there."

Lidl-Trek are trying to keep the pace down but IPT's Mike Woods are among those with other ideas. This is a longish climb but it's about half the gradient of the earlier one, and I don't think it'll be enough to put Milan out the back again.

What looks to be a compression-caused-crash sees Julian Alaphilippe falling to the grassy verge under the pressure of a TotalEnergies rider. He's fine, he just couldn't unclip in time. Not happy about it, though. A few other riders may be worse off but they're all riding again.

Spoiler: Because they want to give the yellow jersey a chance of winning in Paris. The last time the maillot jaune won on the final day was... last year. Before that it was Bernard Hinault in 1982.

This is the kind of stage where that counts as a notable event. A swift bike swap and he's back on his way.