Tour de France 2017 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and route for Stage 17

After Stages 17 and 18 on Wednesday and Thursday, we will likely know who will win the 2017 Tour de France. Beyond those two days lie two sprint stages and what will probably be a predictable time trial if Chris Froome is still in the yellow jersey. The forthcoming Alpine climbs are truly unpredictable, however, especially with Froome seemingly on less-than form for the steepest gradients this year.

Stage 17 features the two hardest climbs of this year’s Tour, according to Podium Café. The first is Col de la Croix de Fer, a stunning 24-kilometer climb that goes well above 10 percent gradients on its early slopes. The second is Col du Galibier, which is *technically* 17.7 kilometers to the highest point of this year’s race at 2,642 meters.

The scare asterisks are because directly preceding Col du Galiber is Col du Télégraphe, a Category 1 climb that, with the exception of a small dip, makes for roughly 35 kilometers of uphill action when combined with the monster after it. These are long, massive, classic Tour climbs that are only cheapened slightly by the long descent to the finish line in Serre-Chevalier.

You would be dumb to have followed the Tour this long and not watch Stage 17. Racing will begin early, at 6:20 a.m. ET, with NBCSN, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app beginning their coverage at 6 a.m. NBC Sports Gold subscribers have access to enhanced, commercial-free coverage beginning at 6:05 a.m.

With less than 30 seconds separating the top four riders on the general classification, expect aggressive racing to take place on the ascents. Team Sky has been relatively successful at neutralizing attacks, but less so on long climbs, where Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet have put an isolated Froome in uncomfortable positions. Behind them, Rigoberto Uran is having a resurgent Tour, and only needs to keep within a few seconds of the leaders over these two days before potentially time trialing into the yellow jersey on Saturday.

The descent finish, as it was on Stage 9, could be a surprising place for drama. Sure, it’s not nearly as steep or technical as the downside of Mont du Chat, but good descenders are hard to find, and Bardet, as he proved then, may be the best of the bunch.

Froome remains the man to watch. There’s a fair chance that the three-time Tour winner will simply be shepherded up these final climbs by Michal Kwiatowski and Mikel Landa, allowing him to hold serve with his rivals before burying them on Stage 20. That would presume that, say, his crack at the end of Stage 12 was a fluke, however. Froome is in very real danger of giving up the yellow jersey. We will see Wednesday whether he and Sky are truly mortal.

Images courtesy of the Tour’s official site.

Start time: 6:20 a.m. ET (approx.)

Route: 183 kilometers from La Mure to Serre-Chevalier

TV: NBCSN, beginning at 6 a.m.

Streaming: NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app beginning at 6 a.m. NBC Sports Gold beginning at 6:05 a.m. for enhanced, commercial free coverage (separate subscription required)