A review of what happened Wednesday and a look at what to expect in today’s stage:Today’s stage takes riders on a 122.1-mile trek from Bourg-d’Oisans to Saint-Etienne in medium mountains:

Wednesday’s stage: The toughest climb of the Tour so far took riders along a 130.8-mile route from Embrun to L’Alpe d’Huez with three climbs beyond classification.

Winner: Carlos Sastre of Spain won by attacking at the bottom of L’Alpe d’Huez and finished clear of the chasing pack. Samuel Sanchez of Spain was second and Andy Schleck of Luxembourg was third. Both were 2 minutes 3 seconds behind Sastre.

Yellow jersey: Sastre took the yellow jersey and leads Franck Schleck, the overnight leader, by 1 minute 24 seconds. Bernhard Kohl of Austria is third at 1:33.

Quote of the day: “When you have the 10 best bike riders in the world behind your wheel and you have a two-minute gap to close on one of the best climbers in the world, it’s not any situation to be in.”

Cadel Evans of Australia

*--* STAGE 17 RESULTS 1. Carlos Sastre, Spain: 6:07:58 2. Samuel Sanchez, Spain: 2:33 behind 3. Andy Schleck, Luxembourg: same time 4. Alejandro Valverde, Spain: 2:13 behind 5. Frank Schleck, Luxembourg: same time *--*

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*--* OVERALL STANDINGS 1. Carlos Sastre, Spain: 74:39:03 2. Frank Schleck, Luxembourg: 1:24 behind 3. Bernhard Kohl, Austria: 1:33 behind 4. Cadel Evans, Australia: 1:34 behind 5. Denis Menchov, Russia: 2:39 behind *--*