The 2017 Tour de France was the 104th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 21-stage race took place across , commencing with an individual time trial in Düsseldorf, Germany on 1 July, and concluding with the Champs-Élysées stage in Paris on 23 July. A total of 198 riders from 22 teams entered the race. The overall general classification won by Chris Froome of , his third consecutive victory and fourth overall. Rigoberto Urán () and Romain Bardet () finished second and third, respectively.
Geraint Thomas () won the opening stage and became the Tour's first rider that year to wear the general classification leader's yellow jersey. Froome, who performed the best in the opening stage out of the pre-race favourites, took the lead after the fifth stage's summit finish. He held the lead until it was taken by Fabio Aru () at the end of stage twelve, where Froome lost time on the steep summit finish to Peyragudes. Froome retook the yellow jersey after the fourteenth stage and held it until the end of the race.
The points classification was won by Michael Matthews of , with teammate Warren Barguil, winner of two high mountain stages, taking the mountains classification as well as the award for most combative rider. 's Simon Yates, in seventh place overall, won the young rider classification. The team classification was won by .
Teams
The 2017 edition of the Tour de France consisted of 22 teams. The race was the 25th of the 38 events in the UCI World Tour, and all of its eighteen UCI WorldTeams were entitled, and obliged, to enter the race. On 26 January 2017, the organiser of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), announced the four second-tier UCI Professional Continental teams that were given wildcard invitations, of which three were French-based (, and ) and one was Belgian (, which participated in the race for the first time). were initially invited to the race as , before a change of sponsorship prior to the opening day of racing. The presentation of the teams – where the members of each team's roster are introduced in front of the media and local dignitaries – took place in front of a crowd of 15,000 at the square in Düsseldorf, Germany, on 29 June, two days before the opening stage held in the city.
Each squad was allowed a maximum of nine riders, resulting in a start list total of 198. Of these, 49 were competing in their first Tour de France. The riders came from 32 countries. Six countries had more than 10 riders in the race: France (39), Italy (18), Belgium (16), Germany (16), the Netherlands (15), and Spain (13). The average age of riders in the race was 29.4 years, ranging from the 22-year-old Élie Gesbert () to the 40-year-old Haimar Zubeldia (). had the youngest average age while had the oldest.
The teams entering the race were:
Pre-race favourites
In the lead up to the 2017 Tour de France, Chris Froome () was seen by many pundits as the top pre-race favourite for the general classification. His closest rivals were thought to be Richie Porte (), Nairo Quintana (), Alberto Contador (), Romain Bardet () and Fabio Aru (). The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Alejandro Valverde (), Jakob Fuglsang (), Thibaut Pinot (), Esteban Chaves (), Geraint Thomas (), Dan Martin (), Simon Yates (), and Louis Meintjes ().
Froome, who won the 2013, 2015 and 2016 editions of the Tour, had not won a race in the 2017 season prior to the Tour's start. His best result was fourth overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné, a race considered to be the warm-up for the Tour and one he has won before his three previous Tour victories. Despite this, he was thought to have one of the strongest teams in the race that would ride in total support of him. The 32-year-old Porte, who placed fifth in the 2016 Tour, won the general classification in two stage races so far in 2017, the Tour Down Under and the Tour de Romandie, and came second in the Dauphiné. Quintana, third in the 2016 Tour, placed second at the Giro d'Italia, with overalls wins at the Tirreno–Adriatico and the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana earlier in the season. The two-time winner (2007 and 2009) 34-year-old Contador came second overall in four stage races in 2017 before the Tour, Paris–Nice, the Vuelta a Andalucía, the Volta a Catalunya and the Tour of the Basque Country. Bardet, the 2016 Tour runner-up, placed sixth overall in the Dauphiné, with his best other result sixth in the one-day Classic race Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Aru started the Tour sharing leadership of the team with the Dauphiné winner Fuglsang. Aru won the Italian National Road Race Championships a week before the Tour and placed fifth at the Dauphiné.
The sprinters considered favourites for the points classification and wins on the flat or hilly bunch sprint finishes were Peter Sagan (), Marcel Kittel (), Mark Cavendish (), André Greipel (), and Alexander Kristoff (). Others expected to contend for sprint finishes included Michael Matthews (), Arnaud Démare (), Dylan Groenewegen (), John Degenkolb (), Sonny Colbrelli () and Nacer Bouhanni (). Double reigning world road race champion Sagan had won the five previous points classifications of the Tour, one away from matching Erik Zabel's record of six from 1996 to 2001. His form in the 2017 season before the Tour included winning the one-day Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne race and the points classifications in Tirreno–Adriatico, the Tour de Suisse and the Tour of California. Kittel had gained eight wins so far in 2017, as well as the general and points classifications in the Dubai Tour at the start of the season. Cavendish's season before the Tour was affected by glandular fever, missing around three months; his only success had been a stage win and the points classification at the Abu Dhabi Tour. Greipel had amassed four wins in 2017 before the Tour, including one at the Giro. Kristoff had taken six wins so far in 2017, and the points classifications at the Tour of Oman, the Étoile de Bessèges and the Three Days of De Panne.
Route and stages
The opening stages of the 2017 Tour (known as the Grand Départ) were originally scheduled to be in London, United Kingdom; this would have been the third time the Tour had visited London, following the 2007 and 2014 editions. In September 2015, a week before this was due to be announced, Transport for London pulled out of the bid. It was later revealed that this was the decision of the then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, on the grounds of cost: hosting the would have cost £35 million. In December 2015, the ASO announced that the would take place with stages based in Düsseldorf, the fourth time the Tour had begun in Germany and the first since 1987. The bid to host the Tour was only narrowly approved by the city council. The return to Germany followed a resurgence in German professional cycling. On 14 January 2016, details of the opening two stages were announced. The first stage would be a individual time trial in Düsseldorf itself. The second stage would also begin in Düsseldorf. The full route was announced by race director Christian Prudhomme on 18 October 2016 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.
After the first time trial, the race left Germany during stage two, which finished in the Belgian city of Liège. Stage three headed south, and after a brief passage through Luxembourg, ended with a climb in Longwy. After a transitional stage, stage five saw the first major climb, the finish at the La Planche des Belles Filles. The next two stages headed south-west, before stage eight in the Jura Mountains, featured three categorised climbs. The ninth stage included the steep climbs of the , the Col du Grand Colombier, and, after a 42-year absence, the Signal du Mont du Chat, its summit from the finish in Chambéry. After a transfer during the rest day, stage ten took place in the Dordogne region, between Périgueux and Bergerac. Stage eleven was a transitional stage, followed by two stages in the Pyrenees. Stage twelve started from Pau and ended at the Peyragudes ski resort. The next stage was short, at , but included three climbs before a descent finish into Foix. After leaving the Pyrenees, the riders headed north-east; stage fourteen finished with a climb towards the end of the stage. Stage fifteen featured the first appearance of the Col de Peyra Taillade, with its conclusion in Le Puy-en-Velay. Stage sixteen, the first after the final rest day, was a transitional stage, heading east, towards the Alps. Stage seventeen included the Col d'Ornon, the Col de la Croix de Fer, the Col du Télégraphe and the highest point of elevation in the race, the Col du Galibier, before a descent finish into Serre Chevalier. Stage eighteen was the final day of mountains; it had two climbs, the Col de Vars and the finishing climb, the Col d'Izoard. It was the first time the Tour finished on the -high mountain pass. After another transitional stage, heading south, came stage twenty, a individual time trial in Marseille. Starting at the Stade Vélodrome, the course headed around the city, designated the 2017 European Capital of Sport, before ending also at the Stade Vélodrome. The final stage began in Montgeron, which hosted the start of the first Tour, before concluding with the traditional laps of the Champs-Élysées.
There were 21 stages in the race, covering a total distance of , shorter than the 2016 Tour. There were two time trial events, both of which were individual, a total of . Of the remaining nineteen stages, eight were officially classified as flat, six as medium mountain and five as high mountain. The longest mass-start stage was stage nineteen, at , and the shortest was stage thirteen, at . For the first time since the 1992 edition, the route included all five of mainland France's mountainous regions; the Vosges, the Jura, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central and the Alps. There were summit finishes on stage twelve to Peyragudes and stage eighteen to the Col d'Izoard. Additionally, the hilly stage three had a hilltop finish in Longwy, and stage five ended at La Planche des Belles Filles. The highest point of the race was the -high Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage seventeen. It was among seven hors catégorie (English: "out of category") rated climbs in the race. There were ten new start or finish locations. The rest days were after stage nine, in the Dordogne, and fifteen, in Le Puy-en-Velay.
+Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 1 July Düsseldorf (Germany) Individual time trial 2 2 July Düsseldorf (Germany) to Liège (Belgium) Flat stage 3 3 July Verviers (Belgium) to Longwy Medium mountain stage 4 4 July Mondorf-les-Bains (Luxembourg) to Vittel Flat stage 5 5 July Vittel to La Planche des Belles Filles Medium mountain stage 6 6 July Vesoul to Troyes Flat stage 7 7 July Troyes to Nuits-Saint-Georges Flat stage 8 8 July Dole to Station des Rousses Medium mountain stage 9 9 July Nantua to Chambéry High mountain stage 10 JulyDordogne Rest day 10 11 July Périgueux to Bergerac Flat stage 11 12 July Eymet to Pau Flat stage 12 13 July Pau to Peyragudes High mountain stage 13 14 July Saint-Girons to Foix High mountain stage 14 15 July Blagnac to Rodez Medium mountain stage 15 16 July Laissac-Sévérac-l'Église to Le Puy-en-Velay Medium mountain stage 17 JulyLe Puy-en-Velay Rest day 16 18 July Le Puy-en-Velay to Romans-sur-Isère Medium mountain stage 17 19 July La Mure to Serre Chevalier High mountain stage 18 20 July Briançon to Col d'Izoard High mountain stage 19 21 July Embrun to Salon-de-Provence Flat stage 20 22 July Marseille Individual time trial 21 23 July Montgeron to Paris (Champs-Élysées) Flat stage Total
Race overview
Opening stages, Vosges and Jura