No change after yesterdays stage (16). The man of the day was Tyler Hamilton, American, who has been riding since stage 1, with 2 fractures to his right, I think, clavicle.
There were 2 really big climbs after which was a long run to the finish.
There was a break of some 15 riders who took off before the 2 big climbs, they were no danger to the leaders, so were allowed to get on with it. However Hamilton had other ideas. He chased the group down, no mean feat, he picked this group of riders up on the first big climb. He then attacked on the 2nd climb, one of the steepest of this tour. He rode away and spent 95 miles riding alone flat out. At one point he was almost 6 minutes ahead of the field.
One or two teams got worried about this, particularly Alexandra Vinokourov's as this could jepordise his 3rd place. The chase was on.
A very large bunch of riders can move far faster than a lone rider. So there was every chance that they could reel Hamilton in. It was not to be. Hamilton is a class act and maintained his cadence and rode to a brilliant lone win some 1 Min 55 secs ahead of the field. This leaves Hamilton in 5th place overall some 6m 35s behind Armstrong who still leads by 1m 7s from Ullrich. If Hamilton is gain a podium finish in Paris, he will have to beat Vinokourov by over 4 mins in Saturdays time trial. He will beat him, but not by that much.
Either Armstrong or Ullrich will win this Tour, that will be decided on Saturday. In the last TT Ullrich beat Armstrong by 1m 36s. Armstrong has only 1m 7s advantage. It is gonna be good.
The French have been calling Hamilton the 'King of Pain' they certainly admire him.
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