Cycling: Knaven maintains Dutch tradition with breakaway victory

One hundred years of history has provided the Tour de France with all sorts of quirky statistics, and the Dutchman Servais Knaven added to one of them yesterday when he won the 17th stage, which ended at Bordeaux.

Of the 79 visits the Tour has made to the former capital of Acquitaine, no fewer than 13 of the victories have fallen to the Dutch. "Maybe it's because it's so flat around here it reminds us of home," Knaven said.

He is almost right. As a nation whose cycling speciality is producing sprinters and rouleurs - heftily-built individuals capable of churning huge gears for long periods of time on flat and rolling terrain, the Dutch are perfectly suited to the charges to the line here that are product of the absence of hills around Bordeaux.

Yesterday, the Tour approached Bordeaux from the south through the bleak, featureless and hill-free Landes region, leaving behind the Pyrenees in a haze of sporadic drizzle, the first time the clouds have opened on this year's exceptionally dry Tour.

The two transition stages prior to the final time-trial showdown on Saturday between Jan Ullrich and Lance Armstrong were an open invitation for the peloton to switch back to concentrating for 48 hours on the secondary classifications, such as the green points jersey, a competition which usually is taken by the fastman with the most consistent power in his legs.

Given no fewer than four potential candidates - three of them Australians, Stuart O'Grady, Robbie McEwen and the current leader, Baden Cooke and one German, Erik Zabel - were separated by 28 points yesterday morning, and a stage victory is worth 35, a bunch sprint seemed certain.

But instead 10 riders from 10 teams, including Knaven, disappeared up the road into the dank pine forests of the Landes almost as soon as the race had trundled out of the spa town of Dax at midday. As Knaven, an expert in this kind of small group attack which is so typical of races in the Netherlands, pointed out there was a rider from McEwen's team and one from Cooke's teams in the break "and none of us 10 had won a stage this year, so we pooled our efforts together."

After the break had attained a comfortable cushion of just over a quarter of an hour, Knaven then broke cover in ideal terrain, just as the 10 were entering a labyrinth of backroads in the grimy suburbs of western Bordeaux. The nine left trailing found themselves faced with the classic dilemma of using up energy in chasing and having others tag along behind, or waiting to see if any of the remainder would do the donkey work instead. All of them plumped for the latter option, allowing Knaven to open up a 30-second margin in the last kilometre, ample time for waving at his family via the TV cameras before finishing, and to raise his arms so often prior to finishing it would have done credit to an aerobics class.

Knaven had had his own special reasons for wanting the break to go clear: like most Dutchmen he eminently prefers to concentrate on the Northern classics such as Paris-Roubaix, which he won in 2001. Stages of this type offer riders like Knaven their one window of opportunity for beating the Tour specialists.

Indeed, such is their dislike for the Tour that Knaven's team leader at Quick Step-Davitamon, Johan Museeuw, the Classics specialist who has won Roubaix three times, pronounced his last ride in the Tour, in 2001, "a very big mistake". And prior to Knaven's victory, the last winner of Roubaix to take a stage in the Tour was Museeuw - 11 years ago.

Knaven denied the rumours that his new contract included a clause that allowed him to opt out of the Tour if he won a stage. The grin on Knaven's face as he did so, however, suggested he thought this might be an excellent idea for the future.

Tour De France Results

Stage 17 (Dax to Bordeaux, 181km, 113 miles): 1 S Knaven (Neth) Quickstep 3hr 54min 23sec; 2 P Bossoni (It) Vini Caldirola +17sec; 3 C Mengin (Fr) FDJeux.com; 4 L Van Bon (Neth) Lotto; 5 S Commesso (It) Saeco; 6 V Garcia Acosta (Sp) ibanesto.com; 7 P Luttenberger (Aut) CSC; 8 M Clain (Fr) Cofidis; 9 B De Groot (Neth) Rabobank all same time; 10 I Parra (Col) Kelme +1min 55sec. Selected: 11 R McEwen (Aus) Lotto +8:06; 12 E Zabel (Ger) Telekom; 13 B Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com; 21 S O'Grady (Aus) Crédit Agricole; 22 B McGee (Aus) FDJeux.com; 27 J Ullrich (Ger) Bianchi; 28 L Armstrong (US) US Postal; 135 D Millar (GB) Cofidis s/t. Overall: 1 Armstrong 74hr 40min 28sec; 2 Ullrich +1min 7 sec; 3 A Vinokourov (Kaz) Telekom +2:45; 4 H Zubeldia (Sp) Euskaltel +5:16; 5 I Mayo (Sp) Euskaltel +5:25; 6 T Hamilton (US) CSC +6:35; 7 I Basso (It) Fassa Bortolo +8:08, 8 C Moreau (Fr) Crédit Agricole +11:12; 9 F Mancebo (Sp) ibanesto.com 1+6:05; 10 C Sastre (Sp) CSC +16:12. Selected: 53 Millar +1hr 55min 05sec.

Points (green jersey): 1 Cooke 169; 2 McEwen 163; 3 Zabel 157; 4 T Hushovd (Nor) Crédit Agricole 146; 5 O'Grady 133.

King of the Mountains (polka-dot jersey): 1 R Virenque (Fr) Quick Step 324pts; 2 L Dufaux (Swit) Alessio 187; 3 Armstrong 168; 4 J M Mercado (Sp) ibanesto.com 133; 5 Moreau 132; 6 Mayo 130; 7 Zubeldia 125; 8 Ullrich 124; 9 Hamilton 116; 10 P Bettini (It) Quick Step 100.

Teams: 1 CSC 221hr 36min 33sec; 2 Euskaltel +16:57; 3 ibanesto.com +18:53; 4 US Postal +23:52; 5 Team Bianchi +1:08:57.

Youth (under-25, white jersey): 1 D Menchov (Rus) ibanesto.com 74:57:37; 2 M Astarloza (Sp) AG2R +42:33; 3 Mercado ibanesto.com +1:00:38; 4 S Chavanel (Fr) Brioches +1:07:07; 5 M Rogers (Aut) Quick Step +1:19:06.

Alasdair Fotheringham writes for Cycling Weekly