Graham Watson

Triple Dekker: the Dutch star displays his winning smile, again.

Dekker (Rabobank) claimed the 155-kilometer Evian-les-Bains to Lausanne 17th stage in 3 hours, 24 minutes and 53 seconds, a length ahead of Erik Zabel (Telekom) of Germany and American Fred Rodriguez (Mapei). Rodriguez's third place was only the second podium appearance by an American in this year's race.

American race leader Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal Service), who has three second-place finishes but no stage wins, made a smart, late stage move. In an attempt to both end his winless Tour and ride safely, Armstrong rode away from the main group with Jan Ullrich of Germany (Telekom) with five kilometers left. The duo pursued the then stage leaders, Mario Aerts (Mercatone Uno) of Belgium and Javier Pascual-Llorente (Kelme) of Spain.

But the field tracked down the top-two ranked riders of the Tour as well as the stage leaders with about one kilometer left.

Armstrong, who has led the race since the 10th stage, finished 35th, six spots behind Ullrich, both in the same time as the stage winner. Armstrong retained his 5:37 advantage over Ullrich and his 6:38 margin over Joseba Beloki (Festina).

"I slept well," said Armstrong, who lost nearly two minutes of his race lead when he suffered in the final eight kilometers of stage 16. "I'm not worried about it. In cycling, you're going to have bad days. I still want to win a stage, but [Jan] Ullrich will be the favorite in the final time trial [on Friday]."

Dekker, who began the day in 56th position, also won the eighth and 11th stages. He emerged with Zabel in the final three kilometers, and passed Zabel nearing the line and with his arms spread.

The severity of the race, particularly the aggressive riding in the 16th stage to Morzine, resulted in the retirement of 1998 Tour winner Marco Pantani (Mercatone Uno) of Italy and last year's race runner-up, Alex Zulle (Banesto) of Switzerland.

Pantani, who won two stages, suffered in the 16th stage and lost nearly 12 minutes to Armstrong. Stomach problems reportedly kept him from starting the 17th stage.

Zulle, who didn't perform well throughout the tour and began the day in 47th place, abandoned on the day's first climb, a category two ascent 54 kilometers into the stage.

With the departure of two other riders during the stage, the 87th edition of the Tour, which began with 177 riders on July first in Futuroscope, now has 130 riders. Four stages remain, including the usually largely ceremonial final stage Sunday in Paris.