TdF Stage 3: Saint-Malo - Nantes (208km)

So the thin dream of seeing Valverde actually go from start to finish of the entire Tour in Yellow has died today. Quickly on that thought . . . has anyone actually done that? I cannot be bothered to do the research but I would very much doubt that it has happened? Anyway, it’s not happening this year thanks to a four man break that managed to last the distance and keep clear of the split peloton. The winner of the stage was Samuel Dumoulin of France and the yellow jersey taken by third place on the stage man, Romain Feillu, also of France.

It was a stage full of drama that took 5hr, 5mins, 27secs to complete. Feillu had been the favourite to take the win once it was assured the leading four would not be caught, as he was seen as the sprinter in the group but when an attack came in the final kilometre and a half Feillu put in a huge effort to close the gap, when he did close he went straight past but had started his sprint too early. He was caught with a hundred yards to go and passed by two of his fellow break away riders. Paolo Longo Borghini found the last ditch push to much and came in 14 seconds back with the first peloton lead by McEwan and Zabel a further 2′03 behind.

I say the first peloton because of the drama that unfolded further behind the break away group. A protest on the road, a couple of crashes and various other little incidents seen the peloton split into two groups with the second big group containing a Tour favourite in Denis Menchov coming in 38 seconds behind the first group.

The protest was an interesting one. I’m not really sure what they were protesting about, but it wouldn’t be the Tour without a roadside protest of some shape or form. It came with 57km left in the stage and it took the Tour director Christian Prudhomme to talk to the leader of the protest to calm them down and convince them to move to the side of the road to let the peloton past. The leading four were caught up and had to use the side of the road to get past. Thankfully the protest was indeed moved before the peloton could arrive or it might well have caused carnage to the race result.

I’m not quite sure what Prudhomme offered them to move them on, money? Air time on the TV? Tickets to something or another? Whatever it was it did the trick and the race went on.

So that marks the last big chance of any ‘no-name’ getting the jersey. Tomorrow is an individual time-trial that will separate the big names out and split all the times up into a more sensible ranking. Following that we should get a good idea of who stands where and what each rider needs to do when we hit the first mountain stage later in the week.

Category: Pro Road Racing » Protests on the Tour, Tour de France |

...........................................................................................................................................................................