Stage 17

The road

At the start

Basso second, and a day to breathe

Plan de Corones moved Basso up to second at 2:27, a single second ahead of Porte, with Evans fourth at 3:09 and the top eight covered by five and a half minutes. Today is 173 kilometres from Brunico over the Passo delle Palade to Peio Terme, a finish that climbs but climbs gently: the last nine kilometres average four per cent. Liquigas will want it quiet. Others will not.

How it was won

1. 1125 km to go

   Nineteen up the road

   With 125 kilometres left a nineteen-man escape goes, and the peloton, a day after Plan de Corones, has no appetite for it. The gap runs out to 11:26.

2. 265 km to go

   Over the Passo delle Palade

   Halfway up the day's main climb the lead is still 9:27, and Caisse d'Epargne, riding for the pink jersey, can find nobody in the group worth chasing. The stage is going to the break.

3. 33 km to go

   Monier flies the coop

   Ignatiev has attacked, Sorensen has answered, Moreno has gone with fourteen to ride and been brought back. Then with three kilometres left, on a finishing drag averaging four per cent, Damien Monier goes, and the fast men left in the group look at each other a beat too long.

4. 4At the line

   A first professional win

   Monier holds it into Peio Terme by 36 seconds from Hondo, with Kruijswijk third. Twenty-seven years old, from Clermont-Ferrand, and it is the first win of his career.

The result