Stage Three
Rain, rain and more rain greeted the peloton on stage three. The weather must have been very frustrating for the riders because it would appear to improve, only to return even more heavily.
Saint-Malo - Nantes, 208km
Rain, rain and more rain greeted the peloton on stage three. The weather must have been very frustrating for the riders because it would appear to improve, only to return even more heavily.
Once again a breakaway went out but unusually the peloton allowed it to get out to a massive 15 minutes with 130km to go. The riders were American, William Frischkorn (Garmin Chipotle - H30), Italian Paolo Longo Borghini (Barloworld), Frenchman Romain Feillu (Agritubel) and his compatriot Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis).
With 115km to go the alarm bells began to ring within the peloton and they began to chase. At 75km the gap was down to 8:30.
For a short time it looked as if the time may become meaningless due to a union protest across the road. But some quick thinking by the director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhome saved the day. Prudhome quickly organised some TV cameras and allowed the unionists to make their protest. They moved out of the way for the leaders and the race was still on.
The time kept coming down but suddenly, at 40km from the finish, the leaders began to maintain their gap. At 50km the lead was 6:44 and 10km later it was still sitting at 6:30. The riders had realised that they had a chance for the win and began to race hard.
With 22km to go a crash split the peloton. Evans and Valverde who were racing near the front of the group were unaffected but Denis Menchov (Rabobank) found himself caught out. Despite having most of his team chasing, he was to lose over a minute to Evans by the end of the day.
Meanwhile the lead group, with some insane efforts managed to stay away from the peloton. The stage win was taken by Dumoulin, but Roman Feillu took the yellow jersey going into the stage four. Robbie McEwen (Silence-Lotto) won the second sprint ahead of Erik Zabel (Milram). After the race he revealed that his computer showed them hitting 72kph during the sprint.
“I knew that once they were out to 15 minutes we weren't going to catch the escape, because the teams built around the other sprinters just didn’t start chasing in time,” said McEwen. “When they did start chasing it was not enough and we came up way too short.”
Results
1 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 5.05.27
2 William Frischkorn (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30
3 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
Overall classification after stage three:
1 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 13.27.05
2 Paolo Longo Borghini (Ita) Barloworld 0.35
3 William Frischkorn (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 1.42
