Leaders lie low again as lesser light takes Bordeaux stage

SERVAIS KNAVEN of Holland pulled off a fine 17th stage victory in the Tour de France yesterday as title contenders Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich kept their powder dry for tomorrow’s potentially decisive time-trial.

For the second stage in succession neither race leader Armstrong, bidding for a record-equalling fifth Tour win, nor closest challenger Ullrich made any significant attempt to steal a march on the other with both men looking to have declared a truce ahead of tomorrow’s race against the clock.

Instead it was one of the lesser lights of the peloton who grabbed the limelight with the 32-year-old Dutchman claiming his first win in Le Tour. The Quick-Step Davitamon team rider won virtually wire-to-wire as he sparked the breakaway by 10 riders just one kilometre into the 181km ride from Dax. Some 18km from the finish he then stepped up a gear to distance his fellow escapees and came in some 17 seconds ahead of second-placed Italian Paolo Bossoni and Christophe Mengin of France.

The Dutchman was delighted with a win that ranks alongside his success in the 2001 Paris-Roubaix classic as his career highlight.

“I don’t win a lot but when I do it is generally a good race,” joked Knaven just after the race.

At one point the breakaway bunch had a lead of greater than 20 minutes on the peloton but by the time the race ended it had dwindled to just over eight minutes with Ullrich coming in 27th and Armstrong 28th on the day as they crossed the line together. During the stage both men could be again seen chatting as they had done on stage 16 and Armstrong retains the leader’s yellow jersey and a 67-second lead over the German who won in 1997 while Armstrong was recovering from cancer.

If US Postal rider Armstrong, normally an accomplished time-triallist but not up to his usual standard in this year‘s Tour, can keep a significant proportion of his 67-second lead after tomorrow’s stage then, barring accidents on the last day, he is almost certain to become only the fifth man to win the race five times.

However, Ullrich took 1:36 off the American in this year’s earlier time-trial between Gaillac and Cape‘Decouverte over a similar distance and if he can repeat that performance then the German will likely wrest the yellow jersey from the American on the penultimate day.

American Tyler Hamilton, whose brilliant breakaway won him Wednesday’s stage, came in with the main peloton in 46th with the same time on the day as the two leaders.

France’s Richard Virenque will lift his sixth King of the Mountains title provided he gets to the finish on the Champs Elysees on Sunday while Russian Denis Menchov retains the white jersey for the best young rider.