Servais Knaven (Quick Step) has won Stage 17 of the Tour de France. The 2001 winner of Paris-Roubaix soloed away from nine breakaway companions to to win the flat, 180.5-km run from Dax to Bordeaux in 3:54:23. Paolo Bossoni (Vini Caldirola) outsprinted Christophe Mengin (La Francaise des Jeux.com) for second at 0:17. Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service) remains the maillot jaune.
Knaven on the podium with the beautiful podium girls. Will a breakaway succeed again tomorrow - or will the spinters finally be allowed to compete for a stage win? Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com to find out! Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.
The day's first break was the break of the day. In the first km, Vicente Garcia Acosta (iBanesto.com), Bram De Groot (Rabobank), Salvatore Commesso (Saeco), Mederic Clain (Cofidis), Peter Luttenberger (CSC), Mengin, Ivan Parra (Kelme), Knaven, Leon Van Bon (Lotto), and Bossoni rolled off of the front. Initially, the peloton did not pursue the ten riders, whose advantage ballooned to 16:11 at 68 km. Credit Agricole then went to the front.
With 18 km left, the break was nine minutes ahead of the bunch and was clearly going to provide the winner. Knaven made a move that his companions could not match. His lead topped out at 0:33 with 11 km left. The peloton came in at 8:06.
Servais Knaven takes the win 8 minutes ahead of the peloton. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.
In the overall, Armstrong leads Jan Ullrich (Bianchi) by 1:07 and Alexander Vinokourov (Telekom) by 2:45. Stage 18 should not change this state of affairs. The flat, 203.5-km run from Bordeaux to St. Maixent l'Ecole should end with a bunch sprint. Who will take it? Robbie McEwen (Lotto)? Baden Cooke (La Francaise des Jeux.com)? Erik Zabel (Telekom)? Check in at http://www.roadcycling.com/ and find out!
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