Tour de France 2014, Stage 17: Route, TV schedule and more

The 2014 Tour de France progresses through the Pyrenees Mountains with Stage 17, and Italian Vincenzo Nibali draws closer to a general classification win. Wednesday’s race will challenge riders with three Category 1 climbs.

Nibali holds the overall lead with a time of 73 hours, 5 minutes, 19 seconds through 16 stages. That’s 4 minutes, 37 seconds better than Spaniard Alejandro Valverde Belmonte. Three Frenchmen currently round out the top five: Thibaut Pinot (+5’06”), Jean-Christophe Peraud (+6’08”) and Romain Bardet (+6’40”). Stage 17 begins in Saint-Gaudens, covering 124.5 kilometers before ending in Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d’Adet. Riders will travel along the French-Spanish border and move into Spain for part of the race. After the three Category 1 ascents, the competitors face a hors categorie climb of 10.2 kilometers up to the finish.

Take a look at the course and stage profile, via the Tour’s official website:

In his stage preview, Podium Cafe’s Douglas Ansel says the stage is set for a battle royal between the riders fighting for second place.

In recent years the organizers of the Tour have opted to begin including shorter stages in the mountains. The hope is that the shorter distances will encourage more aggressive racing earlier out rather than just a showdown on the final climb. With hardly any distance between the end of one descent and the beginning of another climb, tomorrow offers a perfect chance for some early aggression, especially in the four way battle between Alejandro Valverde, Thibault Pinot, Romain Bardet, and Jean Christophe Peraud for the podium spots behind a serenely reigning Nibali.

Valverde in particular seems antsy to use his strong Movistar team to crack things open and help secure his second place overall. AG2R could also try to push Pinot’s questionable (though, increasingly less so) descending skills as they race towards the final climb. And once we hit the final climb, whatever group remains together will have a knock down drag out brawl, especially if they are *relatively* fresher than at the end of earlier mountain stages.

TV coverage: Coverage will begin at 8 a.m. ET on NBCSN, and will run through noon.

Live streaming: NBC Sports Live Extra will carry coverage concurrent with the NBCSN broadcast.