Armstrong Preserves Overall Lead

Lance Armstrong finished 28th in the flat 17th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday, maintaining his overall lead and saving his strength for a crucial upcoming time trial.

Servais Knaven won the 112-mile anticlimactic stage to become the first Dutch rider to win a stage in this Tour.

Armstrong's plan on Thursday was to stay safe. He accomplished that goal and was led to the line by his U.S. Postal Service teammates.

Armstrong, trying for a record-tying fifth straight Tour win, finished in a group of riders that included Jan Ullrich, his closest rival.

By finishing with the same time as Ullrich, Armstrong preserved his 67-second lead over the 29-year-old German with just three days of racing remaining.

In the previous 16th stage, Armstrong was happy to concede the spotlight while his former teammate Tyler Hamilton, riding with a double-fractured collarbone, won his first ever stage Wednesday.

"I think this is the biggest day of the Tour," Armstrong said after the 16th stage. "Incredible."

Just 17 days earlier, on the second day of the three-week slog around France, Hamilton thought his Tour was over. Caught in a crash involving about 35 riders, he cracked his right collarbone in two places — an injury he and others thought would make it impossible for him to cope with the 2,016 miles of bumpy roads and grueling mountain climbs to come.

"To win a stage of the Tour de France is fantastic. It's beyond my wildest dreams," said Hamilton, who now rides for the Danish CSC team. "After today, I'll forget about the disappointment."

Hamilton didn't have much luck during the first 15 stages of the race. He pinched a nerve in his back, became dehydrated and also got whacked on his collarbone by a television camera the day after he crashed.

Prior to Monday's 15th stage, the third of the Pyrenees climbs finishing at Luz-Ardiden, Hamilton's bad luck then took a turn for the worse.

"The day started with me taking a hit from an elevator door on the way out of the hotel," Hamilton said. "I got clocked pretty good on my collarbone. This was not a good omen."

Armstrong, too, has had bad omens thus far, in what he recently called "a very odd, crisis-filled Tour."

He has experienced two crashes, one near miss, an accidental trek across a bumpy field, dehydration, technical problems with his bike and ill-fitting racing shoes.

"I've never lost the final time trial in a Tour de France and I don't plan on starting this year," Armstrong said.

With both unlikely to attack in Thursday and Friday's flat stages, Saturday's penultimate stage will make or break the race.

Friday's 18th stage is another flat leg from Bordeaux, where Armstrong will try to stay fresh and out of trouble leading up to Saturday's clash with Ullrich.

Armstrong's teammates are confident the 31-year-old Texan can clinch his fifth straight Tour win in the time trial on Saturday.

But Armstrong and Ullrich could enter Sunday's final stage close in time, setting up the spectacle of the two riders battling to the final meter.

Armstrong is hoping it will not come to that.

"The idea is that it will be decided on the time trial," said Armstrong's spokesman Jogi Muller.