Tour de France: Lopez wins stage 17 as Roglic tightens grip on yellow jersey

Colombian Miguel Angel Lopez won stage 17 of the Tour de France as Primoz Roglic extended his lead in the race.

Astana's Lopez pulled clear of the other general classification contenders at the summit of Col de la Loze for his first ever stage win, beating Roglic into second by 15 seconds.

That victory moved Lopez into third overall, while Roglic moved almost a minute clear at the top of the pack as Tadej Pogacar finished in third. Rigoberto Uran, who went into the stage in third, was almost two minutes back.

The 170km stage from Grenoble started shortly after defending champion Egan Bernal had pulled out of the race after falling away from contention as a result of a back injury.

Richard Carapaz was the only survivor of a break which had featured Tuesday's winner Lennard Kamna, but he was caught with 3km to go.

Lopez powered ahead for victory after passing Carapaz, while Roglic rode away from Pogacar in the closing stages.

@SupermanlopezN flies up la Loze! Superman Lopez vole sur la Loze ! #TDF2020 #TDFunited pic.twitter.com/tGfVELgBZJ

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) September 16, 2020

An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.

At the start of the day, Deceuninck-Quick-Step's Sam Bennett used the intermediate sprint to add two points to his advantage in the green jersey, which now stands at 47 points.

Pogacar, meanwhile, led the peloton over the Madeleine and added the king of the mountains polka dot jersey to his best young rider's white jersey.

Colombian altitude helped me - Lopez

An emotional Lopez said he felt at home throughout the stage and was prepared for how tough it was thanks to plenty of practice in his native Colombia.

"I'm really happy and very emotional," he said. "We worked really hard for this and it wasn't easy to get there. We were confident because we knew the terrain suited us. It was over 2000 metres of altitude, like being at home in Colombia and so it was an opportunity for me. We fought for this stage."

STAGE RESULT

1. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) 4:49:08

2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +0:15

3. Tadej Pogacar (Team Emirates) +0:30

4. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) +0:56

5. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) +1:01

CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS

General Classification

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 74:56:04

2. Tadej Pogacar (Team Emirates) +0:57

3. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) +1:26

Points Classification

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 278 points

2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) 231

3. Matteo Trentin (CCC) 218

King of the Mountains

1. Tadej Pogacar (Team Emirates) 66

2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 63

3. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) 51

WHAT'S NEXT?

Thursday's stage will see the riders undertake the 168km journey from Meribel to La Roche-sur-Foron, which runs parallel to the borders with Italy and Switzerland. They will face five intermediate climbs before a downhill finish into La Roche-sur-Foron.