‘No fear’ Roglic takes stage

TOUR DE FRANCE: Froome finishes tough mountain battle in third place and retains the yellow jersey

Primoz Roglic won stage 17 of the Tour de France to Serre-Chevalier as Chris Froome finished third to retain the yellow jersey.

Slovenian Roglic led by 90 seconds at the top of the Galibier and the former junior world ski jump champion showed no fear on the long fast descent to the finish to win by 73 seconds.

Rigoberto Uran finished second to take six bonus seconds in the close battle for yellow, with F room et a king four for his third place by pipping Romain Bardet to the line.

Three-time Tour winner Froome now leads by 27 seconds, with Colombian Uran and Frenchman Bardet tied for second place.

Froome, Uran and Bardet finished in the second group on the road, but Italian national champion Fabio Aru had been dropped before the top of the Galibier, conceding more than 30 seconds to lose his grip on second place overall.

Aru dropped down to fourth, 53 seconds off yellow.

Froome’s team-mate Mikel Landa sits fifth, while Irishman Dan Martin of Quick-Step Floors moved up one place to sixth with a battling performance 24 hours after he was caught out in crosswinds and gave up two spots in the general classification.

There had been major news early on the stage when Marcel Kittel, wearing the green jersey and winner of five stages in this Tour, was forced to abandon the race following a crash.

The German hit the deck in a crash that also brought down Warren Barguil in the polka-dot jersey and British national champion Steve Cummings, who both recovered.

Quick-Step Floors’ Kittel began the day with a 29-point lead over Australian Michael Matthews, but had already seen that cut to just nine as his Team Sunweb rival won the day’s intermediate sprint.

Kittel was not alone in abandoning on one of the toughest days of the entire Tour.

Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, a contender in previous years, also quit to leave his FDJ team with just three of their nine original riders left in the race.

British sprinter Dan McLay of Fortuneo-Oscaro abandoned on the Col du Telegraphe.

Picture: AP. France’s Warren Barguil, wearing the polka-dot jersey as best climber, tackles the Croix de Fer pass during the 17th stage of the Tour de France.