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Vichy
178 km
Tuesday 10 March
The Contador group finished 1:10 behind. Chavanel will seize the race lead away from Alberto Contador.
Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabodabk) was second and Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank) was third.
Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) wins the 178-kms third stage between Orval and Vichy.
Chavanel surges with Flecha under the red flame.
With five kilometres to go, the gap is 1:20.
Marcus Burghardt punctured at the worst possible time. Only seven riders left in the lead with five kilometres to go.
With ten kilometres to go, the gap is still at 1:10. It looks good for Chavanel.
With 11 kms to go, Contador is now 1:05 behind the Chavanel group.
Km 164 - The gap between the eight leaders (Veelers and Le Mevel have been dropped) and the Contador group is now 50 seconds.
Chavanel could take the Paris-Nice reins at the finish. He was 7th overall at the start, 19 seconds behind Contador.
Result of the second sprint in Esquirolles (km 160):
1.Chavanel 3 secs and 3 points
2.Garate 2
3.Seeldrayers 1
The gap between the 10-man leading group and the main pack, including yellow jersey holder Contador, Haussler, Gilbert and Frank Schleck, is now 35 seconds.
Briton David Millar (Garmin) punctured.
Km 152 - The ten following riders are now in the lead: Roelandts, Flecha, Garate, Langeveld, Chavanel, Seeldrayers, Le Mevel, Burghardt, Auge and Veelerw.
A group of five riders are 20 seconds behind and the Contador group 40 seconds behind.
The four escapees have been caught 31 kms from the finish line by the Haussler/Chavanel group.
Situation of the race at kilometre 147:
Auge, Le Mevel, Veeler and Roelandts in the lead.
Haussler/Chavanel groupe 40 secs behind
Contador group 1:10 behind
Km 146 - The Haussler group are 1:10 behind the break.
The bunch including Contador is 30 seconds off the pace.
Bradley Wiggins and Cadel Evans are trapped in a third part of the peloton.
Behind the four escapees, the group led by the Rabobanks includes the following riders:
Gilbert (Silence Lotto), Flecha, Garate, Hayman, Langeveld, Tankink, Tjallingii (Rabobank), Chavanel, Seeldrayers (Quick Step), Burghardt (Columbia), Taaramae (Cofidis), Colom and Steegmans (Katusha), Haussler (Cervelo), Timmer (Skil Shimano)
The Rabobank have taken the race by storm and shaken the peloton. The Dutch team lead a group of only some 20 riders, with the main pack about 200 metres adrift. Gert Steegmans and Sylvain Chavanel are in the leading chasing group, but Alberto Contador is not.
Frenchmen David Moncoutie and Nicolas Vogondy, already dropped yesterday in the two split-ups of the second stage, are trapped at the back again.
Km 135 -The Rabobank seize the reins and raise the tempo, splitting the bunch.
The gap at the top of the Col de la Bosse was down to 3:15. It was freezing at the top of the hill (four degrees).
Results at the top of the Col de la Bosse (3rd cat, km 125.5):
1. Auge 4 points
2. Le Mevel 2
3. Veelers 1.
Km 121 - The lead of Roelandts, Bodnar, Le Mevel, Auge and Veelers has been cut down to four minutes.
Maciej Brodnar was dropped at the start of the last climb of the day (km 122) but he made it back on his breakaway companions.
Astana team chief Alain Gallopin said it was not a real option to get rid of the yellow jersey in a race like Paris-Nice: “It was not easy today with the rain and cold to send a man in the break. Now it’s up to the sprinters teams to do their share of the work. It’s a hard and cold day which is going to weigh on the riders. On a eight days race, it’s dangerous to lose the yellow jersey. Even if the weekend’s stages are hard, we cannot allow a rider to take 15 or 20 minutes,” he said.
The third hour average speed was 32.8 kph. The overall average speed so far is 36.8 kph.
While the chase has been led by Astana since the start, Alberto Contador’s team-mates are now receiving a helping hand from other teams like Cervelo, who of course hope for a repeat sprint victory by Heinrich Haussler in Vichy.
The gap has gone down and is now under six minutes with 78 kms to go for the five escapees.
Rabobank team chief Erik Dekker told www.letour.fr that Joost Posthuma did not start this morning because he was sick: "He had already been sick last week and we had doubts about Paris-Nice. But he felt better and did a godd prologue. Unforutnately yesterday, with the rain and cold, he had a lot of pain in the muscles and he had fever in the evening. The doc said it was better for him to stop."
At the top of the Cote de Chavenon (km 87.5), the gap between the five-man break and the peloton was 6:40.
Stephane Auge (Cofidis) now has eight points in the mountain classification and should take the polka-dot jersey away from Aitor Hernandez (Euskaltel), who is on six points.
Results in the Cote de Chavenon (3rd cat, km 87.5)
1. Auge 4 points
2. Le Mevel 2 points
3. Bodnar 1 point
Results in the Cote de Chavenon (3rd cat, km 87.5)
1. Auge 4 points
2. Le Mevel 2 points
3. Bodnar 1 point
Cofidis team director Francis Van Londersele confirmed to www.letour.fr that Remi Pauriol, who broke his collarbone in the second stage, would require surgery: "He won’t be back in action for six or seven weeks," he said.
Km 78 - The lead of the seven-man break reaches seven minutes.
Results at the top of the Cote de la Croix du Chene (3rd cat, km 81.5):
1. Auge 4 points
2. Le Mevel 2 points
3. Veelers 1 point.
The average speed in the second hour of the stage was 34.5 kph. The overall average speed was 39.6 kph.
Km 62 - The lead of the five-man break reaches 6:55.
France’s Anthony Charteau (Caisse d’Epargne) has given up.
Maciej Bodnar was 24 the day before the start in Amilly, Juergen Roelandts is Belgian champion... To know more about the riders in the break, go to the STARTERS section of www.letour.fr and click on their bib numbers.
Km 81.5 - Cote de la Croix du Chene (3rd cat)
Km 87.5 - Cote de Chavenon (3rd cat)
Km 125.5 - Col de la Bosse (3rd cat)
Pole Maciej Bodnar is the best placed of the five escapees in the overall standings. He lies 17th, 31 seconds behind Alberto Contador. He is the virtual Paris-Nice leader.
Km 40 - Auge, Bodnar, Roelandts, Le Mevel and Veelers now lead the peloton by six minutes.
The average speed in the first hour of the race was 44.8 kph.
The gap reaches 5:40 on the sprint line (km 35.5)
Results of the first sprint in Lurcy-Levis (km 35.5)
1. Le Mevel 3 secs and 3 points
2. Roelandts 2 secs and 2 points
3. Augé 1 sec and 1 point.
Km 30 - Like yesterday, it seems the peloton has decided to let the escapees go. Their lead is now 3:55.
In l’Equipe, Philippe Bouvet pays homage to Australian-born Heinrich Haussler, whom he believes is not too far from the very top flight of world sprint: “Already winner twice in the Tour of Algarve, the German, 25, impresses more and more and stands immediately behind the first division of sprinters, most of whom have chosen Tirreno,” he writes.
The Guardian looked back on Bradley Wiggins relatively disappointing start to Paris-Nice:
"Wiggins, whose second place behind the Spaniard in Sunday’s time trial reportedly left him "devastated", endured a fraught first road stage, over 195km from Saint-Brisson-sur-Loire to La Chapelle-Saint-Ursin. The British rider, switching his focus from track to road racing this season, was caught out as the peloton split in the final hour, following a sharp increase in speed as the sprinters’ teams massed at the front in pursuit of a four-man break.
In the ensuing chaos, 40 riders, including Wiggins, became detached from the peloton, though a frantic chase saw them regain contact and thus ensure that Wiggins’ aspirations for a high overall position in Nice on Sunday remain intact – but only just."
An interesting interview in Aujourd’hui with Frenchman Jerome Pineau (Quck Step), who explains why he has not won any race in four years: “You forget what it’s like to win. You don’t know how to do it anymore. Come the crucial moments and you’re taken over by a sudden fear to win. Failure after failure you start to panic when you find yourself in a position to do it. You lose the boldness and spontaneity you had as a young rider. You’re full of doubts, you wonder if you should go... and it’s another guy who goes and wins.”
Km 23 - The break gains momentum in the rain. The five ride through an oaktree forest with a 2:45 lead over the peloton.
Km 18 - The lead of the five escapees is 45 seconds.
Auge (Cofidis) is restless this morning. He’s involved in a second move launched by Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas) with Belgian championJurgen Roelandts (Silence Lotto),
Christophe Le Mevel (FDJeux) and Tom Veelers (Skil Shimano).
Garmin sports director Lionel Marie gave www.letour.fr some news about Daniel Martin and Trent Lowe: "Daniel had felt really tired for a couple of days and we decided it was better to stop him. For Trent Lowe, it’s different, we don’t really know what’s the problem, maybe he’s tired from racing early in the Tour Down under. We’re looking into it and we’re keeping him in the race as long as possible."
Autralia’s Lowe is currently 152nd overall, 10:47 behind Alberto Contador.
A first attempt, launched by France’s Stephane Auge (Cofidis), involved eight riders, but was quickly quashed.
The start of the third stage was given at 12:14.
Alberto Contador will wear the yellow jersey for the second stage in succession despite a big scare yesterday when he was held up by a crash near the finish.
The green jersey is now on the back of Australian-born German Heinrich Haussler, winner of yesterday’s second stage in La Chapelle-St Ursin. On 30 points, the Cervelo rider leads Contador by five points and Briton Bradley Wiggins by eight.
Spain’s Aitor Hernandez took the polka-dot jersey in the two 3rd category climbs of the second stage. The Euskaltel rider leads on six points ahead of two of his breakaway companions between St Brisson-sur-Loire and La Chapelle-St Ursin, Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas), who is one behind, and Dutchman Piet Rooijakkers (Skil Shimano) on three points.
Tony Martin retained the white jersey but is under serious threat from compatriot Haussler, who is nine seconds behind him.
Contador’s Astana still lead the teams classification with the slimmest lead over Garmin-Slipstream.
155 riders are starting. Ireland’s Daniel Martin (Garmsin-Slipstream), who had been sick for a few days, Spain’s Jose Angel Gomez Marchante (Cervelo), involved in a crash yesterday, and Dutchman Joost Postuma (Rabobank) did not start. France’s Remi Pauriol (Cofidis) broke his collarbone and did not finish yesterday.
It rains heavily at the start in Orval and the temperature is seven degrees. It seems like it is going to be a wet day on the race.
Welcome on the 178-kms third stage of Paris-Nice between Orval and Vichy. It looks ideal for sprinters again, but who knows? A break might develop and go all the way... Stay tuned to www.letour.fr
