TdF Stage 17 : Pau - Castelsarrasin

After Rasmussen had to leave the tour due to some missed doping controles and some lies, the stage started without a yellow jersey. This stage would become a ride for the escapers and so it a happened.

Early in the stage Bennati, Fothen, Quinziato, Voigt, Millar, Elmiger, Tosatto and Righi left and they went on to the finish. Millar, Righi, Tosatto and Quinziato couldn't follow the others and so it became a sprint of four. Of course Daniele Bennati was the fastest and so he won his first Tour de France victory before Fothen and Elmiger. In the sprint for the ninth place and the green jersey Tom Boonen won easily before Sebastien Chavanel and Robert Hunter.

In the stage we haven't seen much Euskaltel but Haimar is now number 5 in the General Rank and he can raise to number 4 in the time trial, Astarloza is number 10 and can get the number 9 and Txurruka is riding in the white jersey tomorrow because Contador has the yellow one and Soler has the jersey for the mountains.

Stage Result

1 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Lampre - Fondital 4.14.04 (44.52 km/h)

2 Markus Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner ST

3 Martin Elmiger (Swi) AG2r Prévoyance ST

...

32. Haimar Zubeldia +9:39

41. Amets Txurruka +9:39

43. Ruben Perez +9:39

51. Inaki Isasi +9:39

54. Mikel Astarloza +9:39

88. Inigo Landaluze +9:39

99. Jorge Azanza +9:39

100. Gorka Verdugo +9:39

General Rank

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel 80.42.08

2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor - Lotto +1.53

3 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel +2.49

...

5. Haimar Zubeldia +6:29

10. Mikel Astarloza +13:42

23. Amets Txurruka +45:54

39. Inigo Landaluze +1:30:29

49. Gorka Verdugo +1:49:18

51. Ruben Perez +1:53:31

82. Jorge Azanza +2:42:57

88. Inaki Isasi +2:53:05