The mountains seem to be never ending and Stage 17 just continues to test the riders. Today’s stage has a jagged profile through the high mountains of the Haute-Savoie area. With five classified climbs the stage starts with a hard climb and ends with a harder one. Climbing from kilometer zero the riders head up the 1968m Cormet de Roselend. This 18km climb was part of the 2007 Tour when Michael Rasmussen broke away with a small group and not only picked up the stage win but also took the polka-dot climbers jersey away from Sylvain Chavanel.

After this tough start the riders then are hit with the 15km Col des Saisies, the 6.3km Cote d’ Araches, the 8.8km Col de Romme, and finally the 7.5km Col de la Colombiere. The Colombiere has been part of the Tour 17 times including in 2000 when Pantani led over the climb and in 2006 when Floyd Landis was first over the top. Floyd was also first over the Col des Saisies, in 2006, which is where he launched his attack and broke away for a long solo ride that allowed him to cross the line first. In 2007 Linus Gerderman had a hard day, out front by himself also, as he held off the leaders up the Col de la Colombiere to win the stage and take the top step of the podium wearing the yellow jersey.

Lance Armstrong will be well aware of this finish in Le Grand-Bornand. In 2004 he won his third straight mountain stage in a close finish over Andreas Kloden and Jan Ullrich. Armstrong stated, “No gifts,” meaning that every win is a critical win and the prestige that comes with winning a Tour de France stage is earned. Well, whoever wins Stage 17 will surely deserve it after covering the difficult 169km.