Key moments

It seems that winning stages with the best sprinter in the world isn’t enough for Team Columbia-Highroad. Mark Cavendish delivered the knock out blow but really the bout for GC honors also began with 30km to go when the US-registered team caused a split in the peloton. All riders from Cavendish team were present – as was the seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong and the yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara.
‘Cav’ won the stage, Tony Martin moved to second overall and Armstrong proved that smart riding has its rewards: he is third overall after three stages.

The Progress Report
The third stage of the 2009 Tour de France, from Marseille to La Grande-Motte began at 1.01pm. There were 179 riders at the sign-on. The non-starter was Jurgen van de Walle (QSI) who crashed in stage two. The three intermediate sprints were in La Fare-les-Oliviers (48.5km), Mouriès (90.5km) and Arles (118.5km). The route was essentially flat although there were two small cat-four hills at Calissanne (56km) and Vayède (102km).

Immediate Attack By Four Riders…
As soon as the stage began, there was an attack. At the 1km mark Bouet (FDJ) and Dumoulin (COF) had jumped ahead of the bunch; they were chased down by De Kort (SKS) and Perez Moreno (EUS) but the peloton didn’t react at all. At 10km the four attackers joined forces. By then the peloton was already 8’15” behind. De Kort was stung by an insect at the 15km mark but his quartet continued to build its advantage: 9’35” at 19km; 10’20” at 20km; 13’00” at 37km. This was the maximum gain of the escape. The average speed for the first hour was 35.9km/h.

Bouet Becomes Virtual Leader
Bouet, the virtual leader of the Tour, won the first intermediate sprint of the stage. Then Saxo Bank started to up the tempo for the peloton. At 43km the bunch was 12’00” behind, at 48.5km – 11’00” behind. De Kort took three points at the Calissanne climb. The advantage dropped to 8’25” after a brief stint at the front by Saxo Bank riders but then it grew again. The average speed for the second hour was 33.7km/h. As the bunch arrived at the site of the second intermediate sprint, it was 10’10” behind. The average speed for the third hour was 36.6km/h.

Sprint Teams Take Charge Of Chase…
With 70km to go, Saxo Bank riders retreated from the front of the peloton and Columbia took over the chasing duties. The average speed for the fourth hour was 42.1km/h. With 130km to go, the deficit was 5’45”; 150km to go – 3’05”.

Columbia Cause Chaos In Finale
With 30km to go, all nine riders from the Columbia team – who were working to reel in the escapees – upped the tempo to such an extent that it caused a split in the peloton. With 27km to go, they caught the escapees and the front peloton consisted of 29 riders: Hushovd and Roulston (Cervelo), Armstrong, Popovych and Zubeldia (Astana), Cancellara (Saxo Bank), Perez Moreno (Euskaltel), Cavendish, Eisel, Grabsch, Hincapie, Kirchen, Martin, Montfort, Renshaw and Rogers (Columbia), Auge, Dumoulin and Kern (Cofidis), Pineau (Quickstep), Bouet (Agritubel), Gerdemann and Wegmann (Milram), Lemoine, Beppu, De Kort, Geschke, Hivert, Hupond (Skil-Shimano).
Silence and Saxo riders tried to reel in the move but failed because of a strong headwind. The only rider to drop out of the lead group was Eisel but the 28 then arrived at the finish together with a lead of 41 seconds.

Cavendish Claims Number Six
Although there were other good sprinters in the selection of 28 at the finish, no one was able to get around Cavendish who increases his lead in the points classification, after winning a fine sprint ahead of Hushovd. Cancellara finished sixth in the stage and will retain the yellow jersey with a lead of 33” over Martin (THR) and 40” over Armstrong (AST).

Team Columbia seems as though it can do no wrong. With two successive stage wins and the green jersey for Mark Cavendish they’ve got plenty to celebrate but Tony Martin also made an appearance on the podium today to collect the white jersey. The best young rider in the race is also ranked second overall and in the climbing classification.

“The white jersey is a nice prize for sure. I’m happy to have something but really this is just the reward for the work of the whole team. We made a plan today and it came off very well but we have a lot more to do yet. Now I’m first in the youth classification and second overall. And the polka-dot is also a possibility for me, I’m second there. But what’s great about today is that Mark (Cavendish) was able to take the win. That’s not a bonus, it’s what we worked for. It shows the class of the guy. Oh sure, we’re a little tired but that’s because we worked but we worked together just like we will in the team time trial tomorrow.”

The only Saxo Bank rider to make the front group in stage three happened to be the overall leader. Fabian Cancellara will live another day in yellow…

"In the end I was at the right place at the right time. I had to ride the final at the back of the group behind Columbia. I couldn’t do anything else other than survive. In the end there were some winners and some losers. That’s sport. It’s a shame that Andy (Schleck) lost a bit of time but that’s the Tour de France… these things can happen. I can’t say anymore than that. It’s certain that this is not the best day for Saxo Bank but at least we’re still in yellow and I’ve gained some seconds to other riders.
“I don’t know if what the team did early in the stage will cost us for the team time trial but we close the chapter of stage three and start considering the next one now.
“The split happened in a moment when a lot perhaps weren’t expecting it. I got news over the radio, ‘Okay, now there’s a right turn and then in one kilometer there’s a cross wind and it’s going to be strong.’ So I jumped over some speed bumps and just luckily I arrived at the front at the right moment. I couldn’t drop out of the lead group to go and help my team-mates because that was too risky.”

Some squads wanted to save energy for the team time trial of stage four so Columbia decided to cause a bit of chaos to teach the “juniors” a lesson. Mark Cavendish won his second successive stage and once again he insists it’s a win for his team.

“It was sweet for us. No one else wanted to ride. None of the other teams were doing any work so we were the only ones who took it on. I’m glad Fabian was there actually. I would have felt sorry for him if he missed out. I think Saxo Bank rode well at the start today and we did the finish and it was sweet… the other teams – especially Garmin – were all trying to save themselves for the team time trial and in the end they had to ride anyway, but they weren’t riding for the win, they were riding to save time. So it was perfect.
“When he hit the front it was great timing. We took the race on as normal; we were riding for the win and we won.
“At the finish we were amazing. I was able to sit on while the guys did all the work. And I crossed the line first. It was brilliant. It shows were were the only sprint team willing to take responsibility and that worked in our favor.
“Today wasn’t a full-on bunch sprint. I was just taking the win on behalf of the team. They did so much work at the finish. All the other teams are riding like they’re juniors and if they want to behave that way then they get results like juniors.”