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.