Programming note: Sorry that today's newsletter is late. I had some Real Life Business Matters to attend to. But now that we're all here, let's yell real loud about the Queen Stage of the Tour.

THAT was fun. Some people don't like big long battles of attrition. Maybe it's my Big Ten upbringing but I had a great time watching Carapaz pedal desperately to stay away from an elite group of chasers that was steadily being winnowed.

I came away from the stage wanting to yell real loud about a few riders in particular. Let's start from the top.

HOT DAMN MIGUEL ANGEL LOPEZ

The stage winner is now the only rider to get the best of Primoz Roglic and Tadej Pogacar in a battle for the line. Lopez pulled it off with a bit of tactical nous at the ass end of a brutal day.

With three kilometers to go in the stage, and gradients rising to well above 10 percent, Roglic seemed to be in perfect position on the wheel of Jumbo-Visma teammate Sepp Kuss (more on him in a sec), who had just caught Richard Carapaz (more on him, too) to officially end the breakaway.

Then Kuss seemingly made an error, catching Roglic off guard with an acceleration that suddenly left the yellow jersey unprotected. Though several riders were in position to capitalize, including Pogacar and Richie Porte, only Lopez had the legs and awareness to attack.

Lopez then went solo as Kuss all-too-slowly fell back to help Roglic, his brain seemingly stuck trying to decide whether to help his teammate or go for the stage win. In the confusion, Lopez rode away. And though Roglic made a valiant effort to chase him down, Lopez was still able to put 19 seconds (15 seconds on the stage, plus four bonus seconds) into the yellow jersey on the general classification.

The rider they call "Superman" is now on the virtual podium of the Tour de France and getting better. Meanwhile, Pogacar and Roglic are betraying hints of fatigue. Thursday is a brutal stage with more than 4,000 meters of climbing. Now that Lopez has gained a taste for blood, it'll be fascinating to see how he attacks on the Tour's last big mountain stage.

HOT DAMN SEPP KUSS

I cooled a bit on the 26-year-old American rider late in the first week, when he disappeared in the mountains, leaving team leader isolated just when it seemed like Kuss would be most helpful. A steely-eyed reader noticed that I included him among the "and more" while talking about the Tour's great young riders.

Apparently, returning to the Alps restored whatever mojo I thought Kuss had lost. On Sunday, he road to sixth place on the Grand Colombier as a luxury domestique. Then on Wednesday, he damn near won a stage by accident.

At least, that's my interpretation of that acceleration against his team leader with 3k to go. Kuss seemingly made a deep dig thinking Roglic would follow, then looked behind to see only Lopez's helmet. For the next 500 meters, you could almost see smoke coming from Kuss' ears as he processed his next move. He could very well have pulled off a stage win, and his slow drop back to Roglic suggests that the thought crossed his mind. Ultimately, he made the wise decision to protect the yellow jersey.

This probably wasn't a situation like Chris Froome vs. Bradley Wiggins in 2012. For one, Kuss wouldn't have put himself in position to win the yellow jersey by taking the stage.

But coup or no, it's a good sign when you can get to the end of perhaps the hardest climb of the Tour and discover -- whoops! -- that you have more energy in your legs than you thought.

Based on the way he's riding, it may be a matter of when, not if, Kuss gets to lead a team of his own in a grand tour. Of course, American leaders at cycling's biggest races tend to draw comparisons to a certain rider of the recent past, creating unfair scrutiny and expectations that have done more harm than good for other American Next Great Hopes.

So let's not worry about extrapolating Kuss' future. The present is plenty good enough.

HOT DAMN RICHARD CARAPAZ

Imagine being one of cycling's hottest young riders -- a Giro d'Italia winner, no less! -- and being told you had to scrap your repeat title ambitions to go serve someone else. Imagine that the reason you were tapped was because two veterans mucked around and couldn't get in shape, and that one of them would be going to the Giro in your place. Then imagine that the rider you were supposed to be serving struggled with a back injury that he suffered before the Tour even began, and had to abandon with five stages to go.

Carapaz hasn't betrayed any sign that he's frustrated, but I'd understand the feeling. And until Tuesday, he looked like a rider who had been training for a different race, sitting just 16th on the general classification and nearly 33 minutes off the yellow jersey.

But ever since Egan Bernal cracked on the Grand Colombier, Carapaz has looked fantastic in back-to-back YOLO rides, untethered from the responsibility of looking after his or anyone else's general classification hopes.

On Tuesday, he tried but failed to shake 24-year-old Lennard Kamna from a three-man breakaway on a Category 1 climb, and settled for a valiant second place. On Wednesday, he tried to go solo again on an even more menacing Hors Categorie climb, only to get caught with just three kilometers remaining and eventually finish 11th. But his effort was brilliant nonetheless (and much more deserving of the day's Most Combative prize, which went to Julian Alaphilippe for some reason).

Carapaz was in the day's breakaway, made up of five riders: Carapaz, Alaphilippe, Kamna, Dan Martin and Gorka Izagirre. Kamna was the first rider to drop out on the early slopes of the day's first HC climb, the Col de la Madeleine. Carapaz won a cold and drizzly summit, then maintained contact with a madly descending Alaphilippe, ultimately leading to a three-man group that had dropped Martin.

At the base of the Col de la Loze, the breakaway had a roughly 2:30 lead over the yellow jersey group. Then in a similar move to Tuesday, Carapaz put his breakmates in pain. He accelerated with 12.5k to go in the stage and dropped a grimacing Alaphilippe. Then with 9k to go, Izagirre gave up, leaving Carapaz by himself with what seemed like a doomed 20-second advantage.

And it was doomed, but Carapaz made the chase harder than it had any right to be. Even as Pello Bilbao (more on him in JUST A SEC) set a fierce pace for Bahrain-McLaren at the front of the yellow jersey group, dropping rider after rider, Carapaz somehow extended his gap up to 45 seconds with 5k to go, just before hitting the Col de la Loze's most sadistic slopes.

If only the road hadn't gotten so steep, Carapaz might have capped the effort with a win. Alas, he cracked, but not before showing his bosses at Ineos that he's a man, damnit, not some cog in their machine. Carapaz's last two days are the team's biggest accomplishments at this year's Tour, and he pulled them off nearly all by himself.

HOT DAMN PELLO BILBAO

Bahrain-McLaren raised hell throughout the stage to disrupt Jumbo-Visma's vice-like grip on the peloton and try to get Mikel Landa a stage win. Pello Bilbao and company did their job. Landa ... did not, finishing a Landa-esque seventh. The result likely wouldn't have looked much different if Bahrain-McLaren had just let Jumbo-Visma do the driving. But Bilbao's effort was spectacular, and deserves to be immortalized, even in just a few paragraphs of a cycling newsletter.

Bahrain-McLaren made their intentions known at the outset, going to the front of the peloton and setting a ripping pace with the intent of wearing out Jumbo-Visma. They led all the way up the Col de la Madeleine, which Pogacar took for eight points before Bahrain resumed pace-setting.

On the Col de la Loze, Bilbao channeled his inner Wout van Aert and began shedding GC riders off the back with his own ferocious tempo. With 11.3k to go, Nairo Quintana dropped. Then Robert Gesink fell, leaving just five Jumbo-Visma riders in a group of about 20.

At this point, Bahrain's gambit seemed suicidal. They had just three riders remaining, with Damiano Caruso still holding on along with Landa and Bilbao. But Bilbao kept his engine running long past when it should have blown. Down went the 10k and 9k to go markers. With 8.3k to go, Jumbo had lost George Bennett, and Cofidis' Guillaume Martin had been distanced as well.

With 7.1k left, Van Aert was dropped, and Bilbao was STILL GOING, only peeling off a short time later after Jumbo-Visma had been whittled down to three: Roglic, Kuss and Tom Dumoulin. Joining them were Lopez, Richie Porte and Rigoberto Uran all alone; Pogacar with David de la Cruz; Alejandro Valverde with Enric Mas; and Landa with Caruso.

Bilbao obliterated all but the Crème de la Tour. All Bahrain-McLaren needed then was Landa to make his move. Instead he just ... sat on. De la Cruz was the first rider to attack out of the group, and Landa proceeded to explode along with Dumoulin, quickly falling out of stage win contention.

But regardless of how well the tactic worked, we all saw what you did, Pello. You deserve better.

Close the damn summits

Today's social-distancing grade was a generous F-. This is unacceptable.

The No. 2 rider on the GC should not be batting back unmasked, green-haired idiots as he's trying to chase down his rivals while his legs are screaming with lactic acid. There are five categorized climbs tomorrow and every one of them should be empty.

HOT DAMN FUN

A moment of appreciation for Michael Morkov, who has been perfect as Sam Bennett's leadout man all Tour. On Wednesday, he helped Bennett pip Matteo Trentin and Peter Sagan at the intermediate sprint, and finished between them and his leader to expand Bennett's points advantage even more. That deserves a dap.

BRANDS ARE GOOD (SOMETIMES). A Trek car ran over an energy gel packet and got goo all over a spectator, so they gave him a kit to make up for it.

You can buy a gold medal honoring this year's green jersey runner-up for a mere $21,000. Me, I'd rather have Julian Alaphilippe's watch.

Speaking of whihc, few things are more breathtaking and terrifying than Alaphilippe attacking on a decent.

The standings

STAGE 17

1. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) -- 4hr 49min 08sec
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- +15sec
3. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- +30sec
4. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) -- +56sec
5. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) -- +1min 01sec
6. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- +1min 12sec
7. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +1min 20sec
8. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) -- "
9. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- +1min 59sec
10. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) -- +2min 13sec

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) — 74hr 56min 04sec
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- +57sec
3. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) – +1min 26sec
4. Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) -- +3min 05sec
5. Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) — +3min 14sec
6. Rigoberto Uran (Education First) -- +3min 24sec
7. Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) -- +3min 27sec
8. Enric Mas (Movistar) -- +4min 18sec
9. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) -- +7min 23sec
10. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) — +9min 31sec

GREEN JERSEY

1. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) — 278 points
2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) — 231
3. Matteo Trentin (CCC) — 218
4. Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 171
5. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) -- 158

POLKA DOT JERSEY

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) -- 66 points
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) -- 63
3. Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) -- 51
4. Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R-La Mondiale) — 36
5. Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) -- 36

Stage 18 preview -- 175km from Méribel to La Roche-sur-Foron

Stage 18 will begin at 12:05 p.m. local, 6:05 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 6:30 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here’s NBC’s complete broadcast schedule).

Don’t get that channel? You’ll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.

If you can’t watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.

Stage 17 was No. 1 on my watchability guide, and it did not disappoint. However, one could quibble with the 90 kilometers of nearly flat terrain before the climbs that didn't produce any racing of note after the breakaway got out.

Stage 18, No. 3 on my watchability guide, will have no such problems:

Riders will be climbing or descending for 175 kilometers from the outset, with only Stage 13 featuring more total elevation gain. And as the last non-sprint, non-time trial stage of the Tour, expect all out efforts from anyone and everyone who still believes they have something to accomplish.

The stage winner will be either a breakaway rider or a GC contender. Pierre Rolland, Nans Peters and Marc Hirschi are 30, 34 and 35 points back of Tadej Pogacar in the King of the Mountains competition, and there are 47 points on offer for anyone who can win all five summits. Expect one or all three of them to fight for the breakaway.

Among the GC riders, the question is whether Primoz Roglic and Pogacar are running out of gas. Lopez was the strongest rider on the Col de la Loze on Wednesday. If he's trending upwards just as his rivals are trending down, then the 15- and 30-second gaps he created could become expand to a minute-plus. And wouldn't THAT be interesting?

I'm not about bet against Roglic or Pogacar winning the yellow jersey, mind you; certainly not with a time trial remaining. But Lopez sure seems primed to have a big day Thursday. Wednesday proved that he likes the steep stuff, and oh my check out Montée du Plateau des Glières

Keep the fondue HOT because Stage 18 won't be letting up for one second.