Tour de France 2018: How far is Stage 17, what time does it start and how to watch

The shortest regular Tour de France stage for 30 years is not to be messed with as the final week continues.

It’ll be a three-peak, 65km blast from start to finish between Bagneres-de-Luchon and Saint-Lary-Soulan.

A pair of category one climbs come first before an almighty haul up to a summit finish.

The trek up the Montee de Peyragudes comes right from the off, before the riders belt down to the arbitrary intermediate sprint at Loudenvielle.

Then it’s straight back up the Col de Val Louron-Azet, with its average gradient of 8.3 percent.

Last but terrifyingly not least comes the unclassified Col du Portet – a 16km climb pushing a nine percent gradient.

And all crammed into 65km of racing. The pace could be manic.

Tour de France 2018: Stage 17

Distance: 65km
Profile: Three ups, three downs, very little in between. Step on it, chaps!

How to watch and start time

The action will be live on SuperSport 5 from 14:50 and should finish at around 17:30. If you don’t have a Dstv subscription, you can follow Le Tour’s YouTube channel for all the highlights.

What happened on Stage 16

Julian Alaphilippe added the unofficial ‘Duke of Descending’ tag to his King of The Mountains jersey on Tuesday, snapping up stage 16 of the 2018 Tour de France.

Adam Yates was in pole position on the final drop into Bagneres-des-Luchon.

But the Brit crashed on the downhill to allow the Frenchman through and add to a miserable race for him and his Mitchelton-Scott team.

His countrymen at the sharp end of the race – Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome – came through unscathed once again, just about.

A 15-minute halt to the stage was called earlier after police tear gas wafted into the eyes of many of the leading riders, including Thomas, Froome and Peter Sagan.

The feds had been aiming at a bunch of farmers who had lobbed hay bales on to the road in protest, not far from the start line.

Eyes washed out, the peloton resumed but it took a good while before a breakaway was made to stick, almost halfway through the stage.

But that was as dramatic as it got for the general classification big boys.

They cruised home way behind the surviving breakaway riders with little fuss among the pack.

Philippe Gilbert, meanwhile, was lucky to escape in reasonable health after flying head first over a roadside wall following a rear wheel lock-up.