Fabulous Fabian!

The longest stage of the 2007 Tour de France – a 236.5km journey from Waregem to Compiegne – began at 12.00. There were 187 riders at the sign on; Thomas Vaitkus (DSC) abandoned after stage two because of a broken thumb sustained in a crash in Gent. _ There were three intermediate sprints in stage three: in Tournai at the 33.5km mark, in Faintaine-au-Bois (the home town of former race director Jean-Marie Leblanc) at 104.5km and Achery at 167.5km. The only climb was the Cote de Bierancourt, a cat-4 ascent at the 202.5km mark. Conditions were cool with a temperature at the start of 16 degrees Celsius but the sun was out. _ _ French Pair Escape _ Vogondy (AGR) and Ladagnous (FDJ) at the 6km mark. The peloton was led by CSC and it was content to let the escape progress: at 15km the lead was 1’30; 20km – 4’10”… and, with the peloton at the 25km mark, the two escapees had a lead of 8’05”. The points for the first sprint were won by: Vogondy, Ladagnous… and Astarloza who led the peloton to the line in Tournai 11’35” behind the escapees. The average for the first hour was 40.3km/h. The maximum gain of the escape was 13’50” when the bunch was at 44km. The average speed for the second hour was just 30.7km/h. _ The stage leaders didn’t seem to care much about racing: they stopped to answer the call of nature, dropped the chain into the small chainring and cruised along at a mild pace. The average speed for the third hour was 31km/h. _ The points in Fontaine-au-Bois were won by: Ladagnous, Vogondy and Feillu – who jumped ahead of an apathetic peloton that was 8’08” behind at the 104.5km mark. It was a rare bout of action and elevated the Agritubel sprinter up to equal third in the points classification. _ _ Chase Starts With 115km To Go _ With 110km to go the advantage of the leaders dropped to 6’40”. The average speed for the fourth hour was 32.8km/h. The peloton didn’t really chase too hard, rather it just accepted that the two up front could be caught when the finish line was a bit closer so they just allowed them to hover around five minutes ahead. The points for the third intermediate sprint were won by Vogondy, Ladagnous and Astarloza again grabbed the two points for third. He led the peloton to the line in Achery 3’04” behind Vogondy and Ladagnous. _ _ Auge’s Hunt For Climbing Points _ The rider who was equal on points with David Millar in the climbing classification at the start of the stage attacked the peloton with 64km to go. Auge (COF) was joined by Willems (LIQ) in the move which was surely inspired by the quest to gain the polka-dot jersey. With 55km to go, the counter-attackers were 1’45” behind the stage leaders and the peloton was at 4’10”. With 52km to go, the two chasers caught the two early escapees. The peloton was at 3’20”; five kilometers later its deficit was 2’00” but Auge and co started to collaborate well and pushed the lead back up to 3’15” with 40km to go. Auge led Ladagnous and Willems over the climb and the Cofidis rider will wear the polka-dot jersey in stage four. The peloton was led by CSC and Quickstep riders on the cote de Bierancourt 3’17” behind. With 25km to go the deficit was 3’00”. Quickstep, Predictor, C.A and Lampre were doing the work at the front of the peloton. With 20km to go the four led the peloton by 2’25”; 15km – 1’50”; 10 – 1’22”… _ _ Cancellara: A Win In Yellow! _ The escapees arrived at the final kilometer with a lead of 15”. When Cancellara caught sight of the finishing structure he bolted ahead of the peloton, passed the four fugitives and held off the sprint specialists to take the win by a bike length from Zabel. _ Cancellara will wear the yellow jersey in stage five.