Two flat road stages - two sprint victories for Mark Cavendish. Yes the Manx man has done it yet again, recording his second victory in two days at this years Tour, and the 6th of his career, by taking out Stage 3, a 196.5km journey from Marseille to La Grande-Motte. This time Cavendish's kick was too much for green jersey hopeful Thor Hushovd who could only manage second behind the British sprint king. An unknown Frenchman Cyril Lemoine filled the podium in third. Cavendish has already built up a 26 point lead in the points competition and boy he will be hard to catch from here.
But surprisingly the limelight was not all on Cavendish. Perhaps even bigger news was the move from 10th to 3rd on the overall classification of one Lance Armstrong after extreme tempo riding from Team Columbia led to a 40 second split in the peleton. In a stunning result on only the second day, the big winners were Armstrong, Linus Gerdermann, Kim Kirchen, Fabian Cancellara and Michael Rogers, who were the only GC men left after Team Columbia shattered the peleton on the roads into the finish. Colombia's incessant power on the front tore the field to shreds and left a group of only 28 to fight out the finish. Quickly realising that most of his GC rivals, including perhaps surprisingly teammates Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, and Andreas Kloden, had missed the break, Armstrong sent domestiques Haimar Zubelida, and Yaroslav Popovych to the head of the lead group. Their power was enough for the select bunch to stay away for the remainder of the stage and shoot right up to the top of the overall classification.
As a result Cancellara has increased his overall lead to 33 seconds from Team Columbia teammate Tony Martin, who has taken over as leader of the White Jersey competition for best young rider. Armstrong is up to third, while comeback German Gerdermann is up to 8th. Rogers, unlucky to suffer mechanical problems in the opening time-trial, has regained much of that time to lie 11th , just over a minute back from Cancellara.
Tonight sees the team time-trial which is likely to result in a major shake up of the GC. The three favourites have to be Astana, High Road, and Saxo Bank. Astana may have a point to prove after most of their riders missed the break today, and a big performance from them around Montepellier could leave us in the unbelievable position of Armstrong once again wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France - what a sight that would be! It should make for an interesting stage - did Columbia waste too much energy today? Just which team is the strongest at this years Tour? How much time will Cadel Evans Silence-Lotto team lose? Stay tuned for the results tomorrow.
Yellow Jersey - Fabian Cancellara
Green Jersey - Mark Cavendish
Polka Dot Jersey - Jussi Veikannen
White Jersey - Tony Martin
Photo courtesy of Yahoo Sports.
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