2009 Tour de France – Stage 3 Results
(c) Reuters
Welcome back to Bike World News for all of our coverage of the 2009 Tour de France!
Today’s stage started out hot, with the temperature hanging around 30C (that’s 86F for us Yanks) through the neutral zone in Marseille. As we mentioned yesterday, Jurgen van de Walle of Quick Step was the first rider to abandon after falling yesterday and breaking his collarbone.
Today is expected to be another one for the sprinters. Tom Boonen or Thor Hushovd may be looking to take the green jersey from Mark Cavendish‘s shoulders. This is the race’s 3rd finish in the beach-side town of La Grande-Motte
Lance Armstrong and the rest of the Astana team received a warning from the race jury this morning for showing up late for sign in. The teams are expected to be in the area twenty minutes before the start of sign-in, and Astana is apparently notoriously late. The fine for lateness is about 66 euros, a.k.a. a slap on the wrist. The foreign press is trying to put some huge scandal on this, but please…
There is an early breakaway by Maxime Bouet (Francaise des Jeux) and Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), who were soon joined by Ruben Perez and Koen De Kort. At the 13 km mark, they already had a lead of 4’45″ over the peloton and enjoyed over 10 minutes of cushion room by just 26km in. With the heat today, the peloton seemed to not want to work too hard.
At the first intermediate sprint, the order was Bouet, Dumoulin and De Kort, with a 12’45″ advantage over the gruppo. Saxo Bank was sitting at the front of the peloton, but one could hardly call what they were doing a chase.
In addition to the heat today, the wind was expected to be a factor. The area around the route is often subject to high winds, up to 50 km/h, which could definitely pull the peloton apart.
With about 94km to go, the gap had dropped to just over 9 minutes. De Kort took the top points over the Col de la Vayede, followed by Bouet and Dumoulin. Rabobank moved up to help with the chase.
As the race entered the Camargue nature preserve, and the last 80 km, the gap had dropped to around seven minutes. As Astana, AG2R and Columbia joined the chase, the gap continued to drop.
With 55km remaining, the leaders saw their gap come down to 4’35″. Columbia was leading the chase, with some Astana and Liquigas riders in the mix as well.
A crash in the peloton gave the fugitives a chance to open their gap a little bit. Several Saxo Bank and Liquigas riders went down as well as Marzio Bruseghin of Lampre, who crashed yesterday. He was up and going again, although he was bleeding quite a bit from his left knee. he got some treatment from the team car before being paced back up to the peloton by two teammates. Stuart O’Grady was one of the Saxo Bank riders – he seems to have gotten back on as well.
The crash must have served to wake up the peloton because, once they were all back together, they began to chase in earnest, quickly dropping the gap to 3’10″ at the 40km mark.
Bouet, Dumoulin, Perez and De Kort’s break looked more and more in jeopardy as the gap came down. The peloton was chasing at 42 km/h, and by the 32km mark, the gap came under 2 minutes.
The peloton splits and Lance Armstrong, Fabian Cancellara, Thor Hushovd and Mark Cavendish, among others, go after the breakaway. Dumoulin looked back and saw the inevitable and tried to attack, but he had nothing left. 25 riders now sat at the front, with the main peloton 30 seconds back. If the first peloton was able to finish with this gap, Lance would move up to third in the standings, six seconds ahead of Contador.
Cadel Evans moved into position in the second group to help with the chase. Alberto Contador was in that second group as well. Bernhard Eisel and Bert Grabsch couldn’t handle the pace at the front and dropped back to the second peloton.
Skil-Shimano and Columbia-HTC were driving the pace in the first peloton. They were hammering along at nearly 54 km/h! With 10 km remaining, the gap was holding strong at around 30 seconds, and it seemed to increasing slightly as the finish grew closer.
3.4 kilometers. 34 seconds.
It definitely looked like the first peloton would go all the way. There will be no change at the top, since Cancellara is in there, but it will shake up the top ten of the G.C.
Cavendish goes and takes his sixth Tour victory!
Brief Results:
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[...] 2009 Tour de France – Stage 3 Results | Bike World News By Al Fresco 2009 Tour de France – Stage 3 Results. July 6th, 2009 by Al Fresco 4370 views No Comment. (c) Reuters. Welcome back to Bike World News for all of our coverage of the 2009 Tour de France! Today's stage started out hot, with the temperature hanging around 30C … If the first peloton was able to finish with this gap, Lance would move up to third in the standings, six seconds ahead of Contador. Cadel Evans moved into position in the second group to help with the chase. … Bike World News – http://www.bikeworldnews.com/ [...]
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