Paris-Nice

Stage 3: St. Yriex to Aurillac, 155km/96mi

By Cathy Mehl

The Shack’s Levi Leipheimer retained his 8^th place on the general classification and the team holds 2^nd place for the Teams classification.

Director Dirk Demol said, “Alberto Contador showed today that he is the man to watch.  He took a few seconds, which is not so important, but he showed again that he has an acceleration no one else has.  Tomorrow will be the important day.  Levi and Jani look very strong.  We are confident.  The Team works hard for them.”

“The stage was definitely calmer today.  Most of the day was good, until the final 20km….and then it was a fight all the way to the line!” said Chris Horner after the stage.  Snow in the original departure town of Saint-Junien caused the race organizers to shorten the stage by 53km and move the start to St. Yriex.  The adjustment on the stage cancelled two Cat. 3 climbs, leaving one Cat. 3 and three Cat. 2 climbs still to ride.

A peloton of 170 rolled from St. Yriex with a break of three riders going  away after 30km of racing.  The riders were Yann Huguet (Skil-Shimano), Nicholas Maes (Quick Step), and Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto).  With more than seven minutes in hand, the trio held their ground as Caisse d’Epargne chased them down, with Team RadioShack also putting in strong pulls at the front.   The catch was made with less than 6km to go.

On the final climb Nicholas Roche (Ag2R) launched the final attack followed by Voigt, Sagan, Joaquim Rodriquez (Katusha), Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) and Alberto Contador (Astana).  The group of six ramped up their speed and swept into the finish area with a six-second advantage to the chasing group.

Thursday’s Stage 4 takes the peloton 173.5km/108mi from Maurs to Mende as Paris-Nice continues to roll south in search of the sunshine.  With four stages to go the race is entering into the most strategic part of racing and anyone hoping to secure the overall victory will need to make their move in the next few days.  Team RadioShack will be attentive and ready.

Top Ten Results

1          Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas - Doimo        3:44:28            

2          Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha                        

3          Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale                 

4          Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank           0:00:02            

5          Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia                         

6          Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana                  

7          Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Lampre - Farnese Vini      0:00:06            

8          Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne                  

9          Xavier Florencio (Spa) Cervélo Test Team                      

10        Marco Marcato (Ita) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team

Team RadioShack after Stage 3

35       Jani Brajkovic (Slo)

38       Levi Leipheimer (USA)

55       Tiago Machado (Por)

100     Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) 0:01:17

109     Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)

121     Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) 0:02:23

144     Christopher Horner (USA) 0:02:26

General Classification after Stage 3

1          Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank           12:40:26          

2          Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas - Doimo        0:00:06            

3          Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne     0:00:09            

4          David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Transitions   0:00:12            

5          Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas - Doimo          0:00:14            

6          Lars Boom (Ned) Rabobank          0:00:20            

7          Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana                  

8          Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack         0:00:24            

9          Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha           0:00:28            

10        Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team  

Team RadioShack on General Classification

13       Jani Brajkovic (Slo) 0:00:34

76       Geoffroy Lequatre (Fra) 0:02:24

102     Tiago Machado (Por) 0:05:20 

128     Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) 0:09:29 

141     Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) 0:11:00

150     Christopher Horner (USA) 0:12:20

Photo courtesy of Graham Watson