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Tour de France 2011 Stage 17: Boasson Hagen tries again, wins again

Voeckler loses time, keeps yellow

Only 24 hours after losing a sprint to Thor Hushovd, Edvald Boasson Hagen joined Thor in the Norwegians With Two 2011 TdF Wins Club. Boasson Hagen shed his break-away mates on the last climb of the day, descended safely and ran like a deer to the finish line in Pinerolo, Italy. Behind him a dramatic flurry of activity and a poorly negotiated corner by Thomas Voeckler made the race for the yellow jersey much more compelling. By wearing the yellow tomorrow, Voeckler will be tied with legendary Faustino Coppi with 19 career days in yellow.

A handful of categorized climbs begged for an escape to get away, and a 14-man excursion including Boasson Hagen scurried to a gap so large that it was apparent that the peloton was only interested in fighting among itself. A trio bolted away from the bunch to bridge to the break, but it never quite made it. On the biggest climb of the day, the Cat. 1 Sestrieres, Ruben Perez flew off from the break and summited alone, but was reeled in on the long downhill to the base of the final climb, the Cat. 2 Cote de Pramartino. Perennial raider Sylvain Chavanel surged past Perez, but Boasson Hagen jumped the Frenchman in turn and disappeared up the road.

When the peloton sped onto the narrow climb, Contador launched a couple of attacks that were closely marked by the other GC contenders. It was only on the downhill that he was able to escape along with Sammy Sanchez. Voeckler tried to stay with the Spanish duo, but nearly went into the forest once and then had to enter a private courtyard when he overcooked another corner. It looked like the Spaniards were going to put time into all their rivals, but a remarkable effort from the majority of the Big Hitters swept them up right at the line. Only Voeckler, Tom Danielson and Ivan Basso lost 26 seconds.

Tomorrow three HC climbs loom. Will it be the day that Voeckler finally loses yellow?

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