Edvald Boasson Hagen wins 17th stage and Voeckler retains overall lead in 2011 Tour De France
Sky Procycling team’s Edvald Boasson Hagen won the 17th stage of 2011 Tour de France on Wednesday, July 20. Thomas Voeckler retained his overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Gap and ended in Pinerolo. The 24-year-old Norwegian cyclist took a total of 4 hours, 18 minutes to cover the distance of 179 kilometres.
After winning the stage, Boasson said, "I wanted to win this stage because I was so close yesterday, I'm really happy. Yesterday's stage is almost forgotten now. I didn’t find the climb or ascent hard because I knew it well and I was on my own.”
Bauke Mollema of the Rabobank Cycling team was the runner-up with 40 seconds behind Hagen. Sandy Casar of FDJ was in the third place with a difference of 50 seconds.
With 60 kilometres to go, a group of 14 cyclists made their first breakaway including, Boasson Hagen, Casar, Ruben Perez Moreno, Bjorn Leukemans, Julien El Fares, Andrei Amadaro, Jonathan Hivert, Borut Bozic and Dmitriy Muravyev.
All of them managed to gain a lead, but three cyclists, Kevin De Weert (Quick Step), Nicolas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Johnny Hoogerland, launched the attack to bridge across the others.
With 4.5 kilometres to go Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step was the first rider who launched the attack in the final ascent. After a few kilometres, Boasson Hagen increased his pace and managed to open a gap and with the help of his team and crossed the finish-line
first and took his victory.
Boasson further added, "I saw Chavanel attack so I had to close that down. I didn't want to stop because the attacks would start again, so I just kept going and nobody followed. On the downhill, I did it in training and I knew it, I knew I could go quite
fast and nobody could catch me."
Edvald Boasson also took the title of best young rider ahead of Bauke Mollema. Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi) took the title of most aggressive rider.
Europcar team’s Voeckler took the overall lead with a timing of 73 hours, 23 minutes and 49 seconds. Cadel Evans of BMC racing was the runner-up with 1 minute and 18 seconds behind Thomas. Frank Schleck was in the third place with a difference of 1 minute
and 22 seconds.
The next stage will start in Pinerolo and end in Galibier Serre- Chevalier. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 189 kilometres.
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