Tour de France 2017 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and route for Stage 18

We’re nearing the end of the road.

The final kilometer at more than 10 percent gradient into Izoard may contain the last meaningful pedal strokes of the 2017 Tour de France. Chris Froome proved how imperturbable he is on Stage 17, holding pace as Romain Bardet and Rigoberto Uran tried to get their digs into the yellow jersey wearer. They may be in better climbing form than Froome, but unless they drop him on their way to the mountain top finish on the Col d’Izoard, Froome will win the Tour for the fourth time in five years. It’s that simple.

Otherwise, Froome will assuredly bury them on Saturday’s time trial. That means that not only would Bardet or Uran (or Fabio Aru, but he didn’t look so hot Wednesday) have to beat Froome, they would have to beat him badly — likely by a minute-plus — to create a viable buffer that can stand up to Froome’s chrono skills.

Lucky for them, the Col d’Izoard is an ideal setting to crack open the standings, a 14.1-kilometer Hors Catégorie climb at an average gradient of 7.3 percent that gradually steepens to the finish line. Stage 18 will end at 2,360 meters above sea level, making it the third highest mountain top finish in the 114-year history of the Tour.

The stage will begin in Briançon at 6:55 a.m. ET, with a Category 1 climb up Col de Vars beginning 121 kilometers into the stage, and the ascent up Col d’Izoard beginning at the 169-kilometer mark. NBCSN, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app will begin broadcasting the stage at 7:30 a.m. NBC Sports Gold will show the entire stage, commercial free, beginning at 6:40 a.m.

A breakaway isn’t likely to take the stage, not with so much on the line and so much motivation for teams like Sky and AG2R to drive the peloton at a breakneck pace. The feistiest rider on climbs during the Tour has been Bardet, who attacked at three separate moments towards the top of Col du Galibier on Wednesday. He’ll be well-suited to take Thursday’s stage (which is to say, he finally won’t have to deal with a flat finish for which he is definitely NOT well-suited).

Bardet may be the most likely rider to take more than a minute from Froome, but he needs the time gap to have a prayer of remaining in the lead after Saturday’s time trial. Uran, however, is good enough of a chronoman that a relatively small lead could be good enough to secure the yellow jersey in Paris. He has been at his best at the finish line, winning sprints past his rivals on the two toughest stages so far: Stage 9 and Stage 17.

We’re talking hypotheticals, of course, because the safest bet is that Froome does what he always does late in the third week of Grand Tours, which is grind every last ounce of will and hope out of his opponents alongside his team of automatons.

But whatever the result of Thursday’s stage, and whether it really means anything, it will most certainly be the last interesting bit of stage racing of the 2017 Tour, and a day that could possibly stand out on its own, independent of the context of what now appears to be another Sky march to victory.

Enjoy it, because it will be a year before we see another day like this.

Images courtesy of the Tour’s official site.

Start time: 6:55 a.m. ET (approx.)

Route: 179.5 kilometers from Briançon to Izoard

TV: NBCSN, beginning at 7:30 a.m.

Streaming: NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app beginning at 7:30 a.m. NBC Sports Gold beginning at 6:40 a.m. for enhanced, commercial free coverage (separate subscription required)