GAP: European champion Matteo Trentin won the 17th stage of the Tour de France, a hilly 200-km ride from the Pont du Gard, on Wednesday.

The Italian jumped away from a reduced group of breakaway riders at the foot of the last climb and further powered away in the descent to claim his third stage win on the Tour.

It was his Mitchelton-Scott team’s fourth stage win this year after Simon Yates’s brace and Daryl Impey’s victory.

Thursday’s 18th stage is a 208-km mountain trek between Embrun and Valloire featuring three climbs above 2,000 metres.

On another searing hot day in southern France, the top contenders stayed quiet and crossed the line within the peloton, just over 20 minutes off the pace behind Trentin as France’s Julian Alaphilippe retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.

He leads defending champion Geraint Thomas by 1:35 in the general classification.

Trentin made his move with 14 kilometres left and never looked back to beat Denmark’s Kasper Asgreen by 37 seconds and Belgian Greg van Avermaet by 41.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2019