Tour de Norway continues

Edvald Boasson Hagen continues Norway's great Tour ©Graham Watson

Jul 21st, 11. Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen soloed to win today's Stage 17 of the Tour de France, giving Norway their second consecutive victory, their fourth this Tour.

Yesterday he was 2nd to his countryman Thor Hushovd, who also won Stage 13 and wore the yellow jersey for a week earlier in the Tour, but today Boasson Hagen was the clear winner.

"It's been an amazing Tour for Norway, there might only be the two of us but we have four stage wins and that's really great. I'm having a good Tour I think," said Team Sky's Boasson Hagen.

At the end of the 179km stage from Gap in France to Pinerolo in Italy he finished 40sec ahead of Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) and 50sec ahead of Sandy Casar (FDJ).

"I was close yesterday and today I really wanted to win and to arrive at the finish alone. It's a really great moment," said the day's winner. "I was thinking about this stage when I was training a few weeks ago and now that I've won it, it's really great."

The 24 year old launched from his 14 rider breakaway half way up the final climb of the day, the Cat 2 Côte de Pramartino (6.7km at 6%).

After following an attack from French National Champion Sylvain Chavanel (Quickstep) he kept on going to crest the climb as the leader.  

Over the following 8km technical descent Boasson Hagen maintained his lead to take his second stage win this Tour. Boasson Hagen later said he had watched a video of the descent on the Team Sky bus that morning and felt like he knew every corner.

General Classification battle

Andy had to work hard to counter Contador's attacks on today's final climb ©Graham Watson

The Spaniard attacked twice in the last 1km up the Côte de Pramartino. While he was unable to shake his rivals on the ascent, he did break free on the descent.

Along with 2008 Olympic Champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi), Contador flew down the narrow road with its many twists and turns.  

Cadel Evans (BMC) who descended so well yesterday, said he got caught behind Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) and chose not to risk too much to try and get past him.

Yellow jersey leader Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) tried to go with the pair, but he misjudged the corners three times and was lucky not to get injured - he had to jump his bike over a 1m step off the road and narrowly avoided crashing.

Voeckler was eventually overtaken by the GC chasers who were determined to pull the Contador / Sanchez partnership back. Although the two Spaniards worked up to a decent 30sec lead, they were caught on the finishing straight.

Voeckler finished 27sec later, in a group which also included Ivan Basso (Liquigas) and Tom Danielson (Garmin Cervelo), but the Frenchman still retains the yellow jersey ahead of tomorrow's massive mountain stage.

"I lost time and if I'd been more calm, I could have finished with the favorites but I was a little bit too ambitious. Maybe I wanted too much today..." Voeckler said after the stage.

There were no changes to any of the jersey classifications today.

Tomorrow's stage finishes at the top of the legendary Col de Galibier, 22.8km of climbing to 2600m - it is the highest point in the history of the Tour de France.

Boasson Hagen's day

Team Sky lost their leader Bradley Wiggins earlier in the Tour but promised to fight on. Since then they have put Rigoberto Ugan in the Best Young Riders jersey and raced aggressively to get riders in each day's break.

Boasson Hagen joined today's first breakaway of ten riders after just 5km of racing. The peloton was not happy with the composition of riders, however, and they were eventually reeled in 35km later. Not content to be back in the bunch, Boasson Hagen instigated the next break. This time his group was allowed to go clear.

Over two Cat 3 and one Cat 2 climbs, the group worked their way ahead of the peloton and up to the main climb of the stage, the 11.1km Cat 1 Sestrieres. Fortunately they were able to enjoy sunny weather today.

2km before the top, Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel Euskadi) attacked from this break group. Unchallenged, he crested the summit 45sec ahead of Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana), Dmitriy Muravyev (RadioShack), Andrey Amador (Movistar), Maciej Paterski (Liquigas), Sylvain Chavanel (Quickstep), Sandy Casar (FDJ), Julien El Fares (Cofidis), Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil), Bjorn Leukemans (Vacansoleil), Jonathan Hivert (Saur Sojourn) and Boasson Hagen.

A further 1m05s behind the main break at the top of Sestrieres were Nicholas Roche (AG2R), Johhny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Kevin De Weert (Quickstep) who broke free from the peloton 4km before the top of the previous climb, the Cat 2 Col de Montgenevre.

7m51m behind Moreno, the relatively relaxed peloton came over the top of Sestrieres.

After the almost 45km descent, Mollema began the day's final climb, the Côte de Pramartino - 6.7 km, 6 % -  with a 40sec lead on his break group and 2m50s to the three chasers.

The GC peloton were were now 6m53s behind, having caught up a minute thanks to Garmin Cervelo who were working hard to protect their position at the top of the Teams Classification.

Up the front of the race, Chavanel attacked with 12.5km to go. He was soon joined by Boassson Hagen who then went off the front on the narrow road to the top and never looked back.

Tour de France

• Results and jersey leaderboard
• Stage profiles, maps, climbs and previews
• Tour de France start list with race numbers
• Win ten sets of custom Tineli cycle clothing - entries closed
• All Tour de France news