Romain Bardet crossed the line at the end of a tough mountain stage on day 17 of the Tour de France in sixth place after an offensive display from the team throughout the race.

The short 129.7 kilometre stage from Saint-Gaudens featured four categorised climbs, including a mountain top finish atop Peyragudes. No attacks stuck on the flatter run in to the base of the first climb however as soon as the road started to rise, the first real move of the day established itself – seventeen riders including Chris Hamilton and Andreas Leknessund.

With the gap hovering just below one minute, Bardet jumped clear from the group behind halfway up the Col d’Aspin before bridging across ahead of the top of the climb. The three worked well in the lead group over the second climb of the day before eventually bridging over to two leaders who had sat out front since the Col d’Aspin.

On the penultimate climb Leknessund went clear at the front of the race however with the yellow jersey group keeping the lead group close at hand all day he was eventually caught before the top, after Bardet had also been swept up by the yellow jersey, Vingegaard, as well as Pogacar who also had a teammate with him. Leknessund and Bardet regrouped over the top ahead of the final climb to chase back to a small group in front before Bardet pushed ahead on the final climb, eventually coming home in sixth, moving up three places on the GC to sixth in the process.

Romain said after the stage finish: “I’m really happy with the day. I think as a team we can be proud of the way we rode. We wanted to bounce back from yesterday and we went out as we planned in the meeting – a few of us in the front and then for me to go for it. We can have no regrets, we left everything out on the road. It’s a pretty good day and good for the morale.”

Team DSM coach Matt Winston also commented: “I think it was a really good day for the team, bouncing back from yesterday’s disappointment and really getting stuck in today. Three guys in the breakaway where we worked well as a team to get the three climbers in there. Andreas went solo on the climb and did a good job out front, then Romain got caught by the yellow jersey group. He tried to hang on as long as possible and then once he was dropped and Andreas was caught we told Andreas to wait for Romain and work together towards the final climb. From there it was just down to the legs.

“We moved up three stages and we’ll keep looking to go for stages tomorrow and the coming days but the GC move is a nice bonus and a reward for the work the guys showed today.”