TdF: Boasson Hagen doubles his money as Voeckler loses time on Stage 17

Edvald Boasson Hagen doubled his victory tally, to make it four for Norway this year, as Thomas Voeckler escaped two scares, to cling on to his yellow jersey.

Boasson Hagen came back from the disappointment of yesterday, after being pipped to the line by Thor Hushovd, to blow the rest of the field away. The young Norwegian left his breakaway companions, with 11km of the stage still to go, before pulling out an impressive 40 seconds. Norway have enjoyed a rich vein of form in the 2011 tour, with Boasson Hagen taking stages 6 and 17 and Hushovd winning on stages 13 and 16.

The GC men were also in the mood for an attack, with Alberto Contador and Samuel Sanchez aiming for a repeat of Stage 16. The pair used their impressive downhill skills, to pull out a huge gap, and attempted to time-trial it to the end. Frank and Andy Schleck had something to say about it though and caught them, metres before the line. With Cadel Evans in the Schleck group, all five riders finished on the same time.

Voeckler didn’t have quite as much luck, on the final decent; normally a good descender, Voeckler came off the road twice. The Frenchman seemed to be following the lead of, his compatriot, Jonathan Hivert, who crashed in the same places. Fortunately for both, the second incident provided a run off area in the form of someone’s back yard. Despite his best efforts to minimise his losses, the Europcar rider lost 26 seconds on his main rivals.

Yet again Evans was the big winner of the day, now sitting 1:19 behind Voeckler, while Sanchez moved within the 3 minute mark. Contador’s efforts are also riding himself back in to yellow jersey contention, but this battle will be tougher than it has been for years.

Another fast stage start meant a successful breakaway didn’t form, with 59km of racing had passed, until the peloton had passed the first climb. Within 10km, the leaders already had 4 minutes and were able to stay away for most of the day. Probably the happiest of the breakaway riders, besides Boasson Hagen, will be Andrey Amador, who managed to pull himself off bottom sport. His result has handed the lanterne rouge to Liquigas’ Fabio Sabatini, at almost 3 hours down on Voeckler.

Mark Cavendish helped his green jersey ambitions, by taking the remaining intermediate sprint point left. The Manxman currently holds a lead of 35 points over Jose Joaquin Rojas, who is the only one likely to take the maillot vert off his shoulders.

Stage 18 isn’t one for the feint hearted, with nothing less than an haut category climb on the profile. We could see a new holder of the yellow jersey, at the end of this stage, if Voeckler doesn’t serve up one of his best performances of the year. The mountain top finish of the Col du Galibier could provide a chance for the main classification contenders to stamp their mark. Both Sanchez and Contador have proved punchier on the hills and we could see another Spanish victory.