Farrar wins Stage 3
“The first victory is the hardest to get,” said the winner of stage three, Tyler Farrar.
“We got that one yesterday in the team time trial and immediate we have won again today.” In fact, the US team got three men in the top seven of what was an impressive sprint from the best mate of Wouter Weylandts who made sure he paid homage to his falled comrade with a “W” sign just after he crossed the line just ahead of a fast-finishing Roman Feillu.
All the work of the HTC Express that dominated the front of the peloton from five kilometers to go, somehow, got a little muddled up and the big pre-stage favorite Mark Cavendish was only able to finish fifth place. There was no change to the top order of the general classification after this long, flat stage but the third place finisher José Rojas gets a consolation for his fast finish, the Spanish champion is now the leader of the points classification.
The 198km third stage of the 2011, from Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon, began at 12.44pm with 198 riders still in the race. The first attack was a successful one and it involved five men: Gutierrez (MOV), Delage (FDJ), Bouet (ALM), Terpstra (QST) and Perez Moreno (EUS). Their move began in the first kilometer and there was little reaction from the peloton. They steadily increased their advantage and by the 5km mark, Gutierrez was the virtual leader after starting the stage ranked 59th overall, 1’09” behind Hushovd.
By the 40km mark, the peloton was 5’20” behind. The average speed for the first hour was 40.1km/h. The maximum gain of the escape was 8’05” at 74km. Garmin-Cervélo was responsible for the pace setting of the peloton from the moment the escape formed. The average speed for the second hour was 40.7km/h.
With 120km to go, the pace of the peloton picked up and by the time the leading quintet contested the intermediate sprint it was 6’30” ahead of the peloton. Delage led the escape to the line in St-Hilaire-de-Chaleons by starting his sprint about 250 meters from the prime. Five kilometres before the sprint, Lampre, Omega Pharma-Lotto and HTC moved near the front of the peloton. Lampre had the biggest numbers and it was Petacchi who really started the sprint for sixth place points but he netted nothing…
Gilbert was the next to lead – from about 350m before the line – and he led Hushovd and Cavendish. When ‘Cav’ really turned on the pace, he easily took the 10pts on offer for sixth. Discounting yesterday, it’s only the second time in three years that Cavendish has scored points at an intermediate sprint.
The Frenchman in the escape attacked in the final 100 meters of the climb and took one point. His group was 1’35” ahead of the peloton with 55km to go. As the bunch crested the Pont-de-St-Nazaire a few splits appeared; caught in the second group were Chavanel (QST) and Basso (LIQ) and five others but they rejoined the peloton shortly after the climb. Karpets (KAT) crashed with 60km to go and spent the next 20km chasing along with Casar (FDJ) who was dropped on the climb.
Between the climb and the 25km to go mark teams with GC specialists spent time at the front of the bunch: Leopard-Trek, BMC, Rabobank and Saxo Bank. A favorable wind helped them hold a pace of 70km/h. Gutierrez was the first to attack the lead group (with 21km to go). Eventually only he and Delage joined forces after dropping the other three when the peloton was 30” behind.
By then the GC teams were replaced at the head of the peloton by sprint squads HTC, Lampre which shared the work with Rabobank. Terpstra, Perez Moreno and Bouet were caught 15km from the finish. Gutierrez and Delage were caught with 9km to go.
In the third stage of the Giro d’Italian this May, cycling lost one of its own when Wouter Weylandt crashed on a descent. His good friend, Tyler Farrar, made sure that he remembered him after crossing the line to take his first solo victory in the Tour de France.
This success came after a frantic rush to the line that was controlled from five kilometres out by the HTC team but ultimately it was a chaotic rush to the finish line for all but the Garmin team that had three men in the top seven; the yellow jersey led Julian Dean who then delivered Farrar for his winning sprint with 150 meters to go.
Hushovd finished seventh and will keep the yellow jersey for stage four.
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