Team High Road dominated today's mass sprint to take the top 2 spots in the standings. Brit Mark Cavendish, in a very charitable way, gifted the win to his German teammate André Greipel by not overtaking his final lead out man. As a result, both Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) and Erik Zabel (Milram) missed out by following the wheel of the guy that actually slowed down in the last 50 meters. Genius!

It was piano, as they say in Italian, for the GC contenders as they took today off while looking forward to the final push in the Alps starting on Friday. Danilo Di Luca (Team LPR Brakes) did go back to his team car a few times though. Apparently, he wants to spend even more energy before the Alps. He's just too strong! Look for him to slip even further down the standings by Sunday.

Top 10 Results for Stage 17
1 André Greipel (Ger) Team High Road..................................3.27.05
2 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team High Road
3 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas
4 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
5 Assan Bazayev (Kaz) Astana
6 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2R La Mondiale
7 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Barloworld
8 Bram De Groot (Ned) Rabobank
9 Alexander Serov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems
10 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems

See the complete results here.

Mark Cavendish (High Road) won a relatively uneventful stage 13 in a sprint over yesterday's winner Daniele Bennati (Liquigas).

Two main news points today include Mr. Cocky, Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) attempting a breakaway at km 26. Can we please start the real action? All of this showing off for the camera is annoying. Apparently, Di Luca hasn't learned to conserve energy ahead of this weekend's storm of mountain stages. He may be paying for all of this acting soon.

The second news point is a break in the peloton 5 km from the finish meant contenders Riccardo Riccò (Saunier Duval - Scott), Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) losing a few seconds, peanuts compared to this weekend's possible time gaps. Stay tuned!

Top 10 Results for Stage 13
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team High Road..............................4.11.07
2 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas
3 Koldo Fernandez De Larrea (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
4 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
5 Julian Dean (NZl) Slipstream Chipotle Presented By H30
6 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Lampre
7 Alexandre Usov (Blr) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems
9 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Silence - Lotto
10 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank

See the complete results here.