Astana’s rider Izagirre 6th in Tour de France Stage 17
NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - After Jakob Fuglsang and Luis Leon Sanchez left the Tour de France yesterday, the remaining Astana riders showed their fighting mentality today on stage 17, initially making it in the breakaway with three riders. Gorka Izagirre, Omar Fraile and Magnus Cort took off right from the start. Due to a puncture, Cort had to drop back to the peloton, but Fraile and Izagirre created a huge time gap with the pack together with the 31 other escapees, Kazinform has learnt from the club’s press service.
Many ridersattacked in today’s final, with Gorka Izagirre making it in a select group. Inthe end, Matteo Trentin attacked and finished solo, taking the stage win. GorkaIzagirre finished sixth.
«It was a very hot and hardday and the start was very fast because when we tried to create the breakaway,some teams kept pulling in the peloton. But we made it and then I tried to gofor a stage win together with Omar Fraile. Before the final climb, there werealready some attacks, but when Matteo Trentin attacked, nobody was able tofollow him. I think he was the strongest rider of today. Today was a goodchance to fight for a stage win, but I’m sure there are more opportunitiescoming for our team in the final days of this Tour,» said Gorka Izagirre.
Matteo Trentin won stage 17 from Pont du Gard to Gap,covering 200 kilometers. Behind the breakaway, the pack finished 20 minutesbehind Trentin. Julian Alaphilippe is still leading the race. Tomorrow’s stage18 will start in Embrun to finish in Valloire after 208 kilometers, includingfour categorized climbs of which two HC categorized.