Le Tour - Stage 17

Today was a fairly low key day with the peloton allowing a break to get up the road a little bit and once the break knew they were free Voigt put in an attack and was followed by Fothen, Bennati and Elmiger.

In the end Bennati to the stage 9 minutes ahead of the peloton, but the sprinters were out on front of the peloton anyway to grab the remaining point with Tom Boonen getting the largest share remaining to consolidate his green jersey lead even further.

In other news no one wore the yellow jersey today but due to the top contenders all finishing comfortably in the group it was awarded to Contador following the stage.

Also the remaining Rabo's did start today but Menchov decided to abandon in the feedzone. That's really too bad as he had hoped to be an outside contender for the yellow or at least a podium before he started working for Rasmussen.

It looks like it will definitely come down to the TT to decide the winner and I have to give Evans the edge over Contador, BUT I think this will also play into Levi's hands as well. Hmmmmmmmmm.

General Classification After Stage 17
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 80.42.08
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 1.53
3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 2.49
4 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC 6.02
5 Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 6.29
6 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 10.18
7 Kim Kirchen (Lux) T-Mobile Team 11.36
8 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 12.50
9 Mauricio Soler (Col) Barloworld 13.31
10 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 13.42

Points Classification
1 Tom Boonen (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 212 pts
2 Robert Hunter (RSA) Barloworld 190
3 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram 187
4 Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Française des Jeux 143
5 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 140
6 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 125
7 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner 109
8 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC 93
9 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto 85
10 Gert Steegmans (Bel) Quickstep - Innergetic 83