Two time Giro d’Italia winner Paolo Savoldelli won another stage for the Disco boys yesterday as he made the decisive break early in the day and also insured he was part of the breakaway split that came about 15k from the end of the Tour’s longest stage. Seen on the left Savoldelli could not shake Hinault from his wheel however Sebastien Hinault was unable to do any work due to the fact that he was in the red zone by this time. Finally in the closing meters to the line Hinault cracked and Savoldelli was able to just catch Norwegian Kurt-Asle Arvesen to take the prestiguous win for himself and his team.
Stage 17 was increadibly long at 239.5km and the riders surely suffered as the weather was very hot and the pace was terribly fast. Savoldelli, also had the good fortune of moving up the GC standings as he gained time over the main peleton moving up from 33rd overall to 24th.
Jan Ullrich also made an attempt to gain time over Danish King of The Mountains riders Mickael Rasmussen who is also sitting in third place overall, the position that Ullrich has set his sights on now that Armstrong has over 5 minutes on the German. However Jan was unable to shake Rasmussen during the stage, surly on Saturdays time trial Mickael Rasmussen will have a hard time keeping his advantage over the power house German.
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