Green jersey Jonathan Milan wins stage 17 at Tour de France - Meeus and Lund in crash-marred finish

Stage 17 of the Tour de France was the final opportunity for the fast men to take advantage of their pure sprint abilities and it was well seized by Lidl-Trek. Jonathan Milan had the positioning and survived the late crash to win the final sprint.

The final day for the pure sprinters at the Tour would end up being a rough one, not even the headwind throughout the day demotivated a few riders from attacking right from the gun.

With Jonas Abrahamsen, winner of stage 11, in the breakaway, it was always going to be a dangerous one for the peloton. The Norwegian was joined by Mathieu Burgaudeau, Vincenzo Albanese and Quentin Pacher in the day's move.

On the toughest climb of the day just inside the final 100 kilometers we had INEOS Grenadiers push the pace quite hard and split the several into several bits, closing the gap to 30 seconds and opening a new wave of attacks. Ultimately however Lidl-Trek and Soudal - Quick-Step managed to contain the fire and bring everything back.

With 45 kilometers to go, on the final small ascent of the day, there was an attack from Wout van Aert in the peloton who tried to bridge across to the front group, but was unsuccessful. The 45-second gap grew to over a minute, and forced several teams to join the chase in the peloton. It was a difficult task, but eventually they managed to bring back the group.

Abrahamsen was the final rider to be caught, having gone solo but being reeled in with 4 kilometers to go in the wet roads leading to Valence. Tension was high, specially with many wet roundabouts to tackle. This eventually led to a crash, a mass crash entering the final kilometer featuring Biniam Girmay and several other sprinters whilst Tim Merlier was blocked.

XDS Astana Team led out the sprint for Davide Ballerini but Jonathan Milan launched his sprint and when he hit the front there was no matching him. Jordi Meeus rode to second on the day whilst Tobias Lund Andresen was third. The GC riders arrived safely shortly after.