Any hope that Tadej Pogachar might be able to make a comeback in the Tour de France completely vanished Wednesday near 8km from the top of the endless La Rose pass.

The Slovenian slowly but surely slid off the back of the yellow jersey group on stage 17, and if it had already seemed difficult to reverse the trend created by Tuesday's time trial defeat, on Wednesday it simply became impossible.

Led by UAE Team Emirates teammate Marc Soler, Pogachar tried to close the gap, but was still nearly six minutes behind at the finish.

Barring further mishaps, his podium position was secured for now. However, the gap to Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo Visma) had widened from 10 seconds on Monday to 1:48 on Tuesday, and then to 7:35 on Wednesday evening.

UAE and Pogachar could not explain what went wrong in the lozenges, and sport director Joxen Fernandez Mazin insisted that they went into the stage with the intention of attacking.

"I don't know what happened," he said. 'I tried to eat as much as I could, but nothing went into my legs, nothing stayed in my stomach, and after three and a half hours my body was empty.' If it wasn't for such great support, I thought I might have missed the podium today.

"But I fought all the way to the finish and I am very grateful for the support of my teammates."

Pogachar crashed early in the stage, and the blood from a cut on one knee was in his eyes throughout the brutally difficult day of climbing in the Alps. Pogachar, however, did not seem to think the impact was too great.

"It doesn't hurt that much. Maybe it affected my body, but in any case it was not a good day."

It is undeniable that Pogachar suddenly lost power at the 2022 Tour, Col de Granon, and lost his race with Vingegaard. But the Slovenian said that being nearly twice as far back in Courchevel on Wednesday was far less serious than what happened 12 months ago, when he lost less than three minutes to the Dane in Granon.

"The stage to Granon was better," Pogachar said. "Today was one of the worst days of my cycling career. Marc [Soler] kept encouraging me to keep fighting. I have to keep fighting."

The only consolation for UAE Team Emirates on Wednesday was that Adam Yates solidified his third place on the podium, giving the Middle Eastern team two of the top three spots. However, the magnitude of Pogachar's defeat completely overshadowed Yates' success.

Rather than dwell at length on the reasons for Pogachar's sudden drop in strength, Matosin said, "The most important thing now is to support Tadej, the man."

"When you are winning, when the media is praising you, you don't need support. When times are tough, you need to know that there are people you can count on."

"When times are tough, you need to know that there are people you can count on.

The exact reason is unclear, but doctors said they are certain he is ill. Morale was not high after Tuesday's time trial, he admitted.

Maxine said that rather than stage 17 being an exercise to minimize damage, the UAE went into the final Alps stage of the Tour with the goal of turning the race around, which is why they put two riders in a big early breakaway.

"But as soon as we got to the second climb of the day [the Colne de Roseland], Taddei started saying he wasn't feeling well. "

Looking forward, he insisted that in any case, the important thing is for Pogachar to "recover as much as possible and defend his podium position." As for Vingegaard, "all we can do is congratulate the strongest rider in the race this year."