Stage 17

The road

At the start

Gap to Pinerolo, and into Italy

Alberto Contador attacked the Col de Manse three times and only Cadel Evans and Samuel Sánchez could hold him; then Evans went alone on the flat and moved to second overall, 1:45 down. Andy Schleck, timid on the descent, lost 48 seconds and sits at 3:03. Today crosses into Italy over Montgenèvre and Sestriere — and then, immediately above the plunge into Pinerolo, the short and awkward Pramartino.

How it was won

1. 1119 km to go

   Fourteen get away

   An hour of snuffed-out moves ends on the Côte de Sainte-Marguerite, where fourteen riders finally go clear — Boasson Hagen, Mollema, Casar and Chavanel among them.

2. 263 km to go

   Over Sestriere with eight minutes

   De Weert, Roche and Hoogerland launch a doomed attempt to bridge; Perez jumps clear four kilometres from the summit and leads by forty-three seconds. Behind, the favourites do nothing at all — forty kilometres of descent lie beyond the top, and nothing won up here would survive it.

3. 314 km to go

   Chavanel opens the Pramartino

   Six point seven kilometres at six per cent, and its whole value is where it sits: immediately above the plunge into Pinerolo. Chavanel attacks first, looks round, and finds Boasson Hagen inexorably stalking him up the climb.

4. 413 km to go

   Boasson Hagen goes

   Less than a kilometre later the Norwegian puts in one wholehearted acceleration and the gap opens instantly. From there it is a solid tempo to the summit and a seamless descent.

5. 59 km to go

   Contador twice, and the Schlecks look back

   Three kilometres from the top Contador launches, and again after that; each time Andy Schleck drags the group back up to him. The contrast is the story of this Tour — the Spaniard fiercely committed to every move, the brothers taking over the forcing only to glance over their shoulders at the state of play behind. Over the summit Contador tips into the descent with Sánchez and a gap.

6. 67 km to go

   Voeckler in a front garden

   Scrambling for their wheels, the yellow jersey misjudges a bend, rides off the road and ends up in the front yard of a house — precisely where the breakaway's Jonathan Hivert had gone moments earlier. He gets back on the bike. He does not get back on the wheels.

7. 7At the line

   Pinerolo

   Boasson Hagen holds his nerve down the tree-lined plunge and wins by forty seconds from Mollema, with Casar third — a bunch sprinter at Redon in week one, a climber and a descender here. Evans breaks even with Contador on the day and cuts his deficit to Voeckler to 1:18, with the Alps to come.

The result