TDF stage 3

[Guest colonel]

Oh look Agritubal in the break............again

[Spinnekop]

Oh look Agritubal in the break............again

 

 

[Gman1834]

Nochain, my thought aswell.

 

I see supersport schedule dont have anything between 18:00 and 19:30....were will we see the sprint?

 

14:00 - 14:30	SS2	Tour De France H\L Stage 2
14:30 - 18:00	SS2/SSM	Tour De France Stage 3 - Warengem / Compiegne - LIVE
16:45 - 18:00	CSN	Tour De France Stage 3 - Warengem / Compiegne - LIVE
19:30 - 20:30	CSN/SS2	SuperCycling - LIVE
20:30 - 22:30	SS7	Tour De France Stage 3 - Warengem / Compiegne
23:00 - 23:30	CSN/SS2	Tour De France H\L Stage 3

[Christie]

What an unexpected finish, after a long boring day. Sounds like cancelara surprized them! RH also up there in 5th.

[Tumbleweed]

pop out for a quick loosener around town, come home to hear the yellow jersey surprised the sprinters. what happened?

[Evan Andreou]

How's them apples?

[Christie]

I followed the cyclingnews commentry, have not seen it. My guess would be that he went to the front to stay out of crashes, then saw an opportunity to attack with 1km to go.

[Kal-El]

Crazy stuff man

 

It seems the favs were no where - Fabian jumped them bad.

 

 

[Troi Sport]

who's the the dopey Ozzie who does the post race commentary?

 

say Can-che -lara not cancer-rella!!!!

Schmuck!!

[Sammajoor]

who's the the dopey Ozzie who does the post race commentary?

 

say Can-che -lara not cancer-rella!!!!

Schmuck!!

 

Shamus you tool

[Tumbleweed]

I followed the cyclingnews commentry' date=' have not seen it. My guess would be that he went to the front to stay out of crashes, then saw an opportunity to attack with 1km to go.[/quote']

 

only watched the last minute of the race on eurosport this morning. looks like fabian was at the head of the chasing group as they rounded the last bend, then thought, hey, let's time trial this one home! only in the last 300m did the sprinters -- tom and the two robbies - put on the gas. that finish was tight!!!

[Tumbleweed]

this afp piece nicely puts yesterday's win into perspective. especially the funny quotes from the aussie:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/graphics/2007/07/11/soligg111.jpg

 

Compiegne - Australian Stuart O'Grady couldn't help wearing a cheeky smile at the end of what proved to be a dramatic end to a lethargic third stage of the Tour de France on Tuesday.
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara, of O'Grady's CSC team, reinforced his grip on the race's yellow jersey with a fine display of power which won him the third stage - and stunned all the established sprinters.
To put things in perspective, Cancellara is not a sprinter. But as the man who ended Michael Rogers' three-year grip on the world time trial's rainbow jersey, the Swiss can ride a bike fast when he needs to.
Tuesday, the longest stage of the race at 236.5 km, was one of those days.
Cancellara, the winner of Saturday's opening prologue, played a big part in helping to drive the peloton's desperate last-minute chase of a four-man breakaway that was threatening to go all the way.
As the sprinters' teams bore down in the final kilometre the quartet realised their bid was doomed, but in expending so much energy the sprinters themselves were caught out.
Cancellara then moved powerfully to the front. And just kept on going.
By the time Robbie McEwen, Erik Zabel, Tom Boonen and the rest of the sprint squadron realised what was going on, it was already too late.
Cancellara crossed the finish line to offer a rare photo to the waiting photographers - the yellow jersey wearer crossing the finish line first on a flat stage that was promised to a bunch sprint.
"That was the hardest last kilometre of my life," admitted Cancellara.
His win could force CSC into spending precious energy on Wednesday, but his performance will go down as one of the most remarkable stage wins in years.
The big Swiss racer, who has no pretensions on winning the race overall, has now boosted his overnight lead of 13secs over Astana's Andreas Kloden to 33.
Britain's David Millar is lying third at 41, although the Saunier Duval rider gave up the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey to Frenchman Stephane Auge of Cofidis.
Cancellara's win surprised even his own team.
"He pulled a rabbit out of the hat there!" Stuart O'Grady told AFP, stunned at the audacity of his teammate.
After a slow start to the race, and a slow two-man breakaway which did not entice the peloton into doing any chasing until it was really necessary, the chase got underway in the final 40km.
It took a move by Stephane Auge and Frederik Willems - who joined Mathieu Ladagnous and Nicolas Vogondy in the final 60km - for the peloton to even get frisky.
Once the quartet began working together, and keeping their lead of three minutes steady with less than 40km to race did the bunch actually start to give chase.
"It was a weird, weird race," added O'Grady, who dropped off with five kilometres to go having given everything he could as CSC tried to protect Cancellara's lead.
"I've never seen anything like that in my 11 Tours France's. It was stop start, stop start. We had the two guys under control who were in the breakaway, but then when the two other guys jumped across it threw panic into the bunch.
"We tried to get it (chase) going earlier, but in a day when everyone's riding along so slow for so long, everyone's hurting, nobody wants to waste any energy and there's bluffing between the other guys.
"In the end," he laughed, "it comes down to seconds."
O'Grady added: "I was up there going 100 percent just to save the jersey. We weren't even thinking about the stage win. We were worried about keeping the jersey on Fabian's back.
"I'd already ridden my balls off. I had sat up and I was listening to it on the radio. I knew it was going to be tight, it's amazing. Absolutely amazing.
"I think we definitely made something out of nothing today."
Boonen admitted that the sprinters teams had done their sums wrong.
"When we got to the finale where we should have been getting the bunch sprint organised, we were all just too tired from the chase," said the Belgian, who now leads McEwen by four points in the green jersey's points classification.
"When I seen I wasn't going to win I stuck to McEwen's wheel to try and get some points for the green jersey."
Milram sprinter Brett Lancaster meanwhile is still suffering from Sunday's crash in which he hurt his back.
"I'm still suffering," he said.
"I've got no power, and can't pull up at all on my right side. Whenever I hit a climb, or need power then I feel it in my lower back - it's a sciatic nerve problem, but hopefully I'll get it sorted out in the next couple of days."

holy roller2007-07-11 00:14:32