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Armstrong Maintains Overall Lead in Tour

Posted on: Thursday, 24 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Saving himself and his overall lead for the great battle to come, Lance Armstrong cruised to a place-finish Thursday in the pancake-flat 17th stage of the Tour de France, his focus on an expected race-deciding time trial Saturday.

The 112-mile stage, a hill-less, anticlimactic route after the dramas that gripped the Tour in the mountains, was won by Servais Knaven, the first Dutch rider to take a stage on this centenary Tour.

For Armstrong, the aim of the day was to stay safe and out of any crashes. Mission accomplished. His U.S. Postal Service team led him to the line.

Armstrong, the four-time champion expecting to clinch his record-tying fifth win at the finish on Sunday, finished in a group of riders that included Jan Ullrich, his closest rival.

They finished in the same time, meaning Armstrong preserved his 67-second lead over the 29-year-old German with just three days of racing to go.

The flat stage from Dax to Bordeaux, the wine capital of southwestern France, offered few chances for either Armstrong or Ullrich to make up time on each other.

They were content to hang back while a group of 10 lesser-known riders, including Knaven, broke away within the first kilometer of the race.

Both Armstrong and Ullrich are fixing their attention on Saturday's individual time trial, when they will race against the clock seeking to clinch the overall Tour title.

Ullrich, a silver medalist in the event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, is hoping for a repeat of his crushing defeat of Armstrong in a time trial last Friday, when he bit a whooping 96 seconds off Armstrong's overall lead, setting the stage for a grippingly close final week in the three-week slog around France.

Armstrong, however, was suffering dehydration that day because of a heat wave that scorched the Tour. He has never lost the last time trial at the Tour since his first win in 1999 and said Wednesday that he has no intention of doing so now.

On Friday, the Tour ventures off on another flat stage from Bordeaux, where Armstrong's aim is again expected to be keeping fresh and uninjured for Saturday's clash with Ullrich.

Knaven, of the Italian Quick.Step-Davitamon team, was delighted to win his first-ever Tour stage.

"I've always been second, third, fourth in a stage," he said, tears in his eyes. "Today I won. Incredible."

Armstrong came in 28th in the stage, 8 minutes, six seconds behind Knaven. Ullrich finished just ahead of Armstrong, in 27th place and in the same time.

Paolo Bossoni, an Italian rider for Caldirola-So.Di team finished second, ahead of France's Christophe Mengin, of FDJeux.com, in third.

Armstrong's team is confident the 31-year-old Texan can clinch his record-tying fifth title in the time trial on Saturday. If not, and Armstrong and Ullrich go into Sunday's last stage equal on time, the Tour could face the incredible spectacle of the two riders battling to the last meter to win.

But at this point, Armstrong is hoping it will not come to that.

"The idea is that it will be decided on the time trial," said Armstrong's spokesman Jogi Muller, himself a former rider who raced in eight Tours.

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