[Le Tour 2003]Stage 17 - Fast and Early Moves

[Tour Reporter]

Stage 17 - Dax - Bordeaux - 181 km

Everyone in the group of remaining riders heaves a great sigh of relief 
as the profile of today's stage resembles nothing that they've seen for 
many, many days - dead flat, start to finish.  One man not remaining on 
board is Nick Gates from Lotto, who abandoned during yesterday's stage, 
bringing the total number of riders remaining to 149.

Attacks began right at the gun today, and 10 riders moved out to 16+ 
minutes.  They zip through the first sprint with Bram de Groot of 
Rabobank leading Paolo Bassoni of Vini Caldiorola and Servais Knaven of 
Quick Step.

It's a gutsy move to leave the bunch at the 0 km mark, but with 70  km 
to go they still hold 12 minutes over the bunch.

The breakaway -
33 - Jose Vicente Acosta - iBanesto.com
43 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank
53 - Salvatore Comesso - Saeco
62 - Mederic Clain - Cofidis
75 - Peter Luttenberger - CSC
97 - Christophe Mengin - FDJeux.com
106 - Ivan Parra - Kelme
115 - Servais Knaven - QuickStep
148 - Leon Van Bon - Lotto
163 - Paolo Bassoni - Vini Caldirola

Peter Luttenberger is the best placed rider in the overall, which is the 
reason that the teams are beginning to take notice.  Credit Agricole 
reaches into their bag of tricks along with Euskatel-Euskadi and 
Gerolsteiner as they continue cutting down the gap.

Following a nasty series of storms which hit the region while we were 
enjoying the spotless skies and obscene heat in the Alps and Pryenees, 
the temperature has stayed cool at 68 degrees, but with 88% humidity as 
rain threatens but so far seems not quite serious enough to fall.

With 65 km to go, the gap has come down to 11:10.

The break and the chase drove the speed up to 50 km/hr for the first 
hour, and pace remains high - This Tour is on pace for a record average 
speed.

===============================
Some Trivia Again -
Who was the firstrider to win the points competition in 1953?
===============================

As the breakaway rotates nicely towards the day's second sprint point, 
there are some signs of dissension in the break. Acosta of iBanesto has 
stopped taking regular pulls, as his team director has done the math 
that lets him know that teammate Francisco Mancebo is being pushed back 
by the position of Luttenbuerger on the road. Van Bon lets him know that 
sort of behavior won't be particularly appreciated, and politely 
suggests that he rejoin the efforts.

The hardest working man in show business, Erik Zabel of Telekom, has 
amassed 143 points in the Green Jersey Sprint competition with the 2nd 
place finish in yesterday's stage. That has moved him into third place 
in that competition, behind Robbie McEwen at 148 points and the Green 
Jersey wearing Baden Cooke at 156 points.  No matter who takes points 
today, this competition will go down to the final day of the Tour.

Now down under 10 minutes with under 60 km to go. Or to be more precise, 
51 km to go/ 9:15 gap.

Former winners in the often-used finishing city of Bordeaux include Erik 
Zabel, who has won twice, and Davis Phinney, who won here in 1987.

Today seems to finally have returned to a stage of "normalcy" - the 
biggest question is whether the peleton has reacted quickly enough to 
eliminate the gap to the lead group.  Ten will get you twenty that if 
Luttenberger had not been in this group, it would be out and away 
unmolested.  But, at the time the break had a sixteen minute gap, he'd 
climbed into the top ten, making more than a few teams too nervous to 
allow it.

Or, at least allow it _too_ much distance, as with a gap of around 8 and 
a half minutes the serious impetus has subsided a bit.  There's just 
under 40 km to go, and things are just not as strung out in the big 
bunch. In fact, they've edged things back up to around 9 minutes as 
everyone rolls past field after field of vineyards and trees.

The roads under the breakaway seem to be rolling along over slightly 
damp roads. Some strong and wiley riders in the break begin thinking 
about tactics as they realize they are only 33 km from the finish.  Van 
Bon seems to be taking shorte pulls, and has even opted out of a turn or 
two.

They are actually shooting an IMAX movie of the tour this year, and had 
decided before the race to feature Tyler Hamilton, in a study of how the 
brain reacts to pain.  They couldn't have chosen a better subject, 
obviously.

And in more weather weirdness, it's actually raining here in Northern 
California in the latter half of July....

There will be 15 points for the 11th rider on the day, so the men who 
fancy their chances for the Green Jersey in the main bunch will be 
sharpening their knives.

With the break now under 20 km to go, attacks begin to now come in the 
breakaway group - they feel that they will not be caught, even with a 
fair amount of tactical maneuverings.

17 km to go, and Servais Knaven - a strong Dutch rider who has won 
Paris-Roubaix -  has nicked away while the other rides dink around.

Acosta fires away to chase, but gets nailed back pretty quickly.  Van 
Bon won't make the chase, but works to trail anyone else who is getting 
nervous.  The canny Belgian is calmly biding his time, but they continue 
to let Knaven build steam.

Ivan Parra has been sliced off the back fo the bunch as they trail 
Knaven by 17 seconds.

Knaven begins to get lumpy as he strains under the 10 km to go banner. 
The chase is trying to work out how to gather in this rider, but it's 
not wise to bet against a man who has won a spring classic -- although 
it's hard to believe Van Bon and Comesso will let things get away from them.

Acosta now goes and he's immediately  chased by Van Bon and de Groot. A 
series of accellerations begin to chop second off of his time, but the 
end result is that they have regrouped again and Knaven rolls under the 
5 km to go banner with a 30 second gap.

Now the trio of Van Bon, De Groot and Mengin combine to slide off the 
front of the breakawy.  Acosta is having trouble staying attached as 
they regroup again. He gets chopped off by 20 or 30 meters, and claws 
his way back up.

The struggling Knaven holds a lead of 23 seconds as he goes under the 3 
km banner.

No one can get unstuck form the group, who keep accellerating and then 
regrouping. Van Bon has gone again, and just can't get free as the group 
slides back up to his rear wheel.

Under 2 km to go, 24 seconds gap.

Knaven can now see the 1 km to go banner, the flame rouge goes overhead 
as he sneaks a quick look under his arm to make sure that no one has 
snuck up on him. After attacking from the gun, Knaven has now decided 
that he will not get caught, and waves at the crowd - savoring the 
moment, he rolls over the line with no one behind him except for the 
howling driver of his team car.

In the race for second place, the young Mederic Clain of Cofidis 
strongly started the leadout at around 200 meters, but others swarm 
around him as his speed fades - Bossoni comes up fast near the barriers 
while Mengin slides up his side and both lunge for the line - too close 
to call!

A short coffee break later, the bunch begins to fly through the inner 
streets of Bordeux, led by the USPS who want to ferry Lance Armstrong to 
a point reasonably clear of trouble before turning the reins over to the 
sprinters' teams.

FDJ has a train of three riders at 500 meters, leading out their man in 
the Green Jersey, Baden Cooke.  Cooke follows the leadout and winds it 
up a bit early - Lotto's Robbie Mcewen has been stuck on the real wheel 
of Cooke.  Telekom's Erik Zabel follows, but he's a bit boxed behind 
McEwen.  Cooke seems to be fading slightly against the barriers, as 
McEwen moves up to his left.  Zabel moves up strongly on McEwen's left 
shoulder. Mcewen, in the center between Cooke and Zabel, finds a burst 
of speed the others lack, and Zabel continues his accelleration, just 
nicking Cooke at the line.

Stage 17 -
1 - Servais Knaven - Quickstep -
2 - Paolo Bassoni - Vini Caldirola - @ :17
3 - Christophe Mengin - FDJeux.com - s.t.
4 - Leon Van Bon - Lotto - s.t.
5 - Salvatore Commesso - Saeco - s.t.
6 - Vicente Garci Acosta - iBanesto.com - s.t.
7 - Peter Luttenberger - CSC - s.t.
8 - Mederic Clain - Cofidis - s.t.
9 - Bram de Greeot - Rabobank - s.t.
10 - Ivan Parra - Kelme - @ 1:55


General Classification -
MJ - Lance Armstrong - 74:40:20
2 - Jan Ullrich - @ 1:07
3 - Alexandre Vinokourov - @ 2:45
4 - Haimar Zubeldia - @ 5:16
5 - Iban Mayo - @ 5:25
6 - Tyler Hamilton - @ 6:35
7 - Ivan Basso - @ 8:08
8 - Christophe Moreau - @ 11:12
9 - Francisco Mancebo - @ 16:05
10 - Carlos Sastre - @ 16:12

Tomorrow's Stage -
Stage 18 - Bordeaux - Saint Maixent l'Ecole - 203 km
Heading north over flat, flat roads again.
At least two men have already begun to focus upon Saturday's day of 
truth - the final Individual Time Trial of this year's Tour.  Lance says 
he's sleeping better with a 1:07 rather than 15 second lead, while Jan 
says he expected to lose 2 minutes in the Pyrenees and feels good about 
the time he has to make up.  This will be a nail biter.

================================
Trivia Answer -
Fritz Schaer of Switzerland
================================

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