Nicolas Roche’s brave break falls short on Tour as Simon Geschke seizes the day

Nicolas Roche put up a brave fight in a bid to claim stage glory on yesterday’s 17th stage of the Tour de France but it was German Simon Geschke (Giant Alpecin) who emerged victorious with a brilliant solo victory.

The German made it five wins for his country at this Tour when he attacked with just under 50 kilometres remaining and held on to the finish at Pra-Loup by 32 seconds from Garmin Cannondale’s Andrew Talansky with Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quick Step) rounding out the podium.

“It took me two or three minutes to figure out what I had done,” said a very emotional Geschke afterwards. “It was important going into the break and then we had to figure out what to do after that.