The pundits got it right again on Stage 3, with the much fancied Peter Sagan taking the win on the 197km trek from Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer. In what turned out to be a day more reminiscent of a one-day-classic than a flat tour stage the Slovak phenom was too strong on the run into the finish, easily accounting for Edvald boasson Hagen and Peter Velits. In fact the win was so dominant that Sagan earned a 1 second time bonus over the rest of the peleton. It was not nearly enough to dislodge Fabian Cancellara from the Yellow Jersey however, with the Swiss star putting in another solid performance to finish 4th on the day. Sagan did increase his lead in the points classification however, and he is proving the man to beat for the Green jersey at the early stage of this competition.
The stage itself, just like a classic, was filled with action in the closing stages with a number of crashes marring the finish. None of the big GC contenders were caught up in it, although Sky’s Konstantin Sivtsov was forced to abandon, which had the British twitter community in a massive tiz as they feared it would irreparably damage Bradley Wiggins tilt at the overall title (it doesn’t and it won’t). Wiggo was delayed by a crash inside the final kilometre after Oscar Freire hit the deck, but as the field was already inside the last 3km the peleton were all awarded the same time (a shame – would love to have seen the whinging from the Poms if that had cost their golden boy time).
There was also a bit of fire at the day’s intermediate sprint with crackpot Dutchman Kenny Van Hummel nearly annihilating the entire field with a move that was reminiscent of Let’s Elopes 1992 Melbourne Cup win. Still, after nearly being put into the ground by KVH, Mark Cavendish managed to get out into the clear and storm over the top of him in third gear. He even had time to turn over his shoulder and give KVH a massive (and deserved) spray as he crossed the line – classic Cav!
But there is no doubt the day belonged to Sagan who this season is stamping himself as a future superstar of the sport. He has backed up 4 wins in 6 stages in the Tour of California with 2 wins in the first 3 days here and literally looks unbeatable at the moment. The youngster is a freak! The other rider who deserves a shout out is Sylvain Chavanel (my tip for the stage) who put in a mighty attack in the closing 5km in attempt to repeat his French championship win on this finish last year. He gained as much as 11 seconds but the final climb proved a little too tough as he was swept away by the charging light brigade in the final 500m. Michael Morkov (the V is silent! Just in case you didn’t catch the 15 mentions of this on the coverage last night) padded his lead in the mountains classification by somehow sneaking into the break away for the third straight day – a fair effort in anyone’s books.
Yellow Jersey – Fabian Cancellara
Green Jersey – Peter Sagan
Polka Dot Jersey – Michael Morkov
White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen
Brock McLean tweet of the day
@neilroad – That intermediary sprint was equivalent of prison fight – even tho it isn’t important you still need to slap a guy down if disrespects #tdf12
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