Stage 3 of the Tour de France today was marred by a massive crash which forced three riders out of the race – William Bonnet (FDJ), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge). The crash occurrred as the race was approaching the first climb of the Tour de France, the Côte de Bohisseau. At the time, the bunch were chasing down an earlier breakaway made up of four riders – Bryan Nauleau (Europcar), Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka), Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18) and Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling).
After the crash, the race was neutralised to allow the injured riders to be back in the peloton. Twenty five minutes after the crash, the race started again at the top of the Côte de Bohisseau with 50km to go.
After a brief respite, Team Sky put the hammer down and split the peloton with 40kms to go. There was a regrouping though and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Romain Bardet (AG2R) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) were able to get back on to the front group.
Around 40 riders were together coming onto the finishing climb of the Mur de Huy. Joaquim “Purito” Rodriguez (Katusha) accelerated 400 metres before the top to take the win. He had taken victory on the same climb in the 2012 Flèche Wallonne. Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished second and gained 11 seconds over Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and 18 seconds over Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).
Runner up Chris Froome (Sky) has now taken over the yellow jersey with an advantage of only one second over Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) who missed out on the lead for the third consecutive day. Froome has extended his lead over Contador to 36 seconds ahead of arch-rival Alberto Contador in the overall classification ahead of stage 4 on the cobblestones in north of France.
Summary – Stage 3 (Anvers > Huy) – Tour de… by tourdefrance_en
Hectic!
Hectic!