Tour de France 2023 Stage 17 recap: Jonas Vingegaard cracks Tadej Pogacar again as Felix Gall wins queen stage

The second climb is upon us. It's a Cat.1 test that is 19.9km long with an average gradient of 6% - somewhat skewered by a short downhill section two-thirds of the way up. Ciccone is doing what he has to do to keep the polka dot jersey on his shoulders and off those of Jonas Vingegaard, who will be favourite to take the 40pts on the Col de la Loze later on.

The Frenchman leads Ciccone and Neilands through the sprint at Beaufort. They have 18 seconds on a chasing quintet that includes Skjelmose, and then another 10 seconds on a larger chasing group. The yellow jersey group - controlled by Jumbo-Visma - is around 50 seconds down.

With the pace of Jonas Vingegaard and his team-mates easing up towards the foot of the descent, many of the riders in the initial breakaway have sniffed out an opportunity and have zipped clear in pursuit of the leading trio - including the likes of Chris Hamilton, Mattias Skjelmose, Valentin Madouas and many others.

Although that early crash this morning was not the best of ways to fight back after yesterday's disappointment... We spoke to the double champion ahead of Stage 17.

Alaphilippe soloed clear but he's not back alongside Ciccone and Neilands as they tackle a short uphill step halfway down this descent. They have 20 seconds on the pack with the intermediate sprint at Beaufort coming up in 10km at the foot of the second climb.

The Frenchman has zipped clear with Krists Neilands and one other - Ciccone - after upping the tempo after the summit of the climb. They quickly open up a 30-second lead over the yellow jersey group, which will no doubt regroup a little after the early fireworks.

The leaders are now leading the yellow jersey group after the connection was made within the last kilometre of the climb. Skjelmose is still on the front with Ciccone - primed for the polka dot points. And it is indeed the Italian who takes the maximum 10pts over the Col des Saisies to move 15pts clear of Neilson Powless at the top of the KOM standings. Jonas Vingegaard - who yet might take the polka dot jersey by default - is in third, 16pts behind.

Rather than waiting for Tadej Pogacar to attack, Jumbo-Visma are forcing him to respond early on - and to do so with his knee bloodied from that earlier crash. So hard is the pace that the front of the yellow jersey group fragments and Tiesj Benoot goes clear with another Jumbo rider, forcing Marc Soler to chase with Pogacar on his wheel and Vingegaard tucked in behind. Van Aert, who was back, has now been dropped by his own team again. "I don't understand these tactics," says Sean Kelly.

By the time I have typed out their names, they could well be back with the yellow jersey group - because the pace behind is high from Jumbo-Visma, especially now that a few others have tried to zip clear in a bid to bridge over. It seems like Jumbo are not happy with the presence of Rafal Majka up the road - the Polish team-mate of Pogacar.

The 17 leaders: Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates), Thibait Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-EasyPost), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose (both Lidl-Trek), Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroen), Rui Costa (Intermarche-Wanty-Circus), Victor Lafay (Cofidis), Kevin Vermaeke (Team dsm-Firmenich), Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech), Simon Yates, Lawson Craddock and Chris Harper (all Jayco-AlUla), Clement Champoussin (Arkea-Samsic) and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X).

That's a huge dent to the American's pursuit of polka dots. He can't keep up with the tempo being set in this 18-man move and he's now back with the yellow jersey group. The leaders have 15 seconds on Pierre Latour, who is chasing them down solo, and 28 seconds on the yellow jersey group. No sign of Wout van Aert today - he appears to be having one of those rare days off.

This is a very strong group on the front - a blend of the original break and some reinforcements, including two men from the top 10 in Simon Yates and Felix Gall. The polka dot rivals Powless and Ciccone are both here, as well as Uran, Alaphilippe, O'Conner, Lafay and many others. The gap is 20 seconds and growing. But Jumbo-Visma don't seem too happy behind and have sent Dylan van Baarle to the front to pace Vingegaard in pursuit. Pogacar is there with a few UAE team-mates, plus Majka up the road in the move.

It's all over for that seven-man move - which included Ciccone and Powless, the top two in the king of the mountains standings. Another large move seems to be forming off the front with Ciccone back in the hunt with his Lidl-Trek team-mate Mattias Skjelmose, the Danish champion.

When it rains, it pours... The Slovenian seemed to touch wheels with Jonas Vingegaard there and he rolls over onto his side. It was an uphill crash and he didn't fall heavily, but they were going quite fast to close the gap after numerous attacks on the front in pursuit of the break. Pogacar is back - but that is far from an ideal start for the UAE leader.

CORRECTION: Replays show that Pogacar touched wheels with an AG2R rider in front of him - perhaps Gall or O'Connor - and not Vingegaard, who was to his right.

The break has started the Cat.1 Col des Saisies (13.4km at 5.1%) with a slender lead of around 15 seconds. Behind, it's all blown apart with some big-name riders - including third place Adam Yates - seemingly missing out on an early split in the pack.

Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) and Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) bridge over ahead of the first climb. The gap is very small, though. Alaphilippe was led over by his team-mate Tim Declercq there.

Those early attacks come to nothing and now the polka dot jersey Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and his American rival Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) are in a new four-man move alongside Luka Mezgec (Jayco-AlUla) and Jonas Gregaard (Uno-X).

Stage 17 is under way with an attack from Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) and Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost). Krists Neilands (Israel-PremierTech) is also in the mix early on.