Armstrong Eyes Another Tour Victory

By Stephen M. Silverman

07/26/2001 at 10:00 AM EDT

Aiming toward the Paris finish line, Texas's Lance Armstrong, 29, finished 13 seconds behind the winner in the 17th stage of the Tour de France on Thursday, and moved closer to winning his third straight title. (Three stages still remain before the champ is crowned on Sunday.) Belgium's Serge Baguet won Thursday's stage, beating Jakob Piil of Denmark in the final sprint. Baguet, who rides for the Lotto team, completed the 120.3-mile stretch between Brive-la-Gaillarde and Montlucon in 4 hours, 13 minutes, 36 seconds. He crossed the line just ahead of Piil, who had the same time, and five seconds ahead of third-place Italian Massimiliano Lelli, reports the Associated Press. Armstrong, the cancer-surviving head of the U.S. Postal Service team finished with the main pack, and retained the overall leader's yellow jersey, with an unchanged advantage of 5:05 over his closest rival, Jan Ullrich of Germany. Kazakstan's Andrei Kivilev remained third, 5:13 behind Armstrong.