Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk have shown themselves at their very best in the short but tough Pyrenees stage by attacking on the final climb to Saint-Laury-Soulan. Eventually Roglic  climbed to fourth place, Kruijswijk became sixth. After the seventeenth stage, they also hold these positions in the general classification.

In the sixty-five kilometre stage, with three extremely tough Pyrenees climbs along the way, the final climb saw some serious attacks. Team LottoNL-Jumbo animated this final of the stage with several attacks from Kruijswijk and Roglic, who tried it four times.

“It was a short stage but a very difficult day”, Roglic said. “I gave myself for one hundred ten percent and I’m happy with what I showed today. I wanted to gain time on my main rivals here, but unfortunately, I only succeeded to do so on Froome. There are still two decisive stages to come; another mountain stage and a time trial, so anything can happen. It’s now a matter of keeping my focus and continuing to fight until Paris. I felt very strong today. I’ll look at it day by day and than we’ll see where we’ll end up on Sunday.”

Kruijswijk was also happy with his performance. "Today we rode very well as a team. I’m very happy with what we’ve shown. We really animated the stage. Such a short stage is very explosive. So when Primoz attacked, we were left in front with only a few riders. In the end, I just couldn't follow Primoz, Dumoulin and Thomas. But what we showed here is a confirmation that we’re doing really well. The Tour is far from over yet. I want to finish as high as possible in Paris, so we we’ll definitely try something on Friday or in the time trial. We’ll keep fighting.”