Breakthrough win for Tyler Farrar

TOUR race director Christian Prudhomme had promised that the first week of this year's Tour de France was a recipe for all tastes.

Tyler Farrar

TOUR race director Christian Prudhomme had promised the race in the first week was a recipe for all tastes - an equal mix for the physically strong with a pinch of the street smarts.

Garmin Cervelo showed their class on Sunday in the team time trial and yesterday it was another member of the team in Tyler Farrar to take the stage and back-to-back wins for the Argyle tartan army in a time of 4hrs. 40mins. 21secs. on America's Independence day, winning from Romain Felliu of Vacansoleil-DCM, with Movistar's Jose Joaquin Rojas, third.

It was a breakthrough win at the Tour for Farrar as the race only got interesting for the non-purists until the final five kilometres as HTC-Highroad, Garmin Cervelo, Lampre, Omega Pharma Lotto and Astana got their trains organised for the sprinters for the final dash to the line.

The big loser was HTC-Highroad's Mark Cavandish who faded in the final sprint.

"It's incredible. I've been chasing this (win) for a long time. I couldn't have asked for a better lead out from my team mates. I really didn't start sprinting until the final 150 metres," Farrar said.

"I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate the Fourth of July," he added, having been led out by New Zealand team mate, Julian Dean.

Prudhomme's ingredients for the started with an uphill finish into Mont des Alouttes on Saturday, then came the team trial on Sunday, followed by a day out for the sprinters after five riders, none of whom regarded as threats to the overall at the end of three weeks of racing, had broken away early in the hope of pinching the stage honours.

But breakaways rarely succeed, especially on roads pancaked flat.

Prudhomme's recipe for the peloton under a baking French sun yesterday saw Thor Hushovd start and stay in the yellow race leader's jersey on his back, with his bike clearly visible on the road sporting a similar hue after team mechanics spent most of the previous night giving the machine a major makeover.

The Norwegian world champion, who rook the rainbow jersey on the streets of Geelong last October, taken over in the the lead from Philippe Gilbert on a countback from his Scottish Garmin Cervelo team mate David Millar, with BMC captain Cadel Evans, who had swapped the green for the polka dot jersey for the day, just a second behind in third place having figured at the pointy end of the 23km team time trial a day earlier in the town of Les Esserts.

Welshman Geraint Thomas from Team Sky, and the wearer of the white jersey for the best young rider, led a chasing pack of riders on four seconds that included the Schleck brothers, Frank and Andy, two accomplished riders worthy of featuring highly at the business end of the race when it hits the Alps in the final week.

Race favourite Albertor Contador began the day in the unfamiliar position of 75th overall and a worrying 1min 42secs. in general classification.

With blue skies overhead and the temperature hovering around the 24 degree mark and no crosswind to speak off, it wasn't long before the friskier riders tested their legs.
Quick Step's Niki Terpstra, Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Movistar), Maxime Bouet (Ag2r La Mondiale), Mickael Delage (FDJ) and Ruben Perez Moreno of Euskatel-Euskadi were allowed to role off the front once out of the neutral zone and soon had opened up a three minute gap just 10kms into the stage.

As the gap was allowed to stretch out to as much as 8mins. 10secs. inside 70km and with Gutierrez the highest placed rider on general classification at 1.09 down on overnight leader Thor Hushovd of Garmin Cervelo, the chasing bunch didn't panic.

Hushovd was taking it easy letting his domestiques dictate the pace of the chasers, not surprisingly given the flat terrain after leaving the Vendee region, was still a crisp 40kph in the run-up to the only intermediate sprint of the day after 104km and 20 points in the race for the points classification at St Hilaire-de-Chaleons, to the east of Nantes.

Delage took the honours and banked the 1500 Euros bonus from Gutierrez and Delage, leaving the two other escapees and the more favoured sprinters to fight it out for the small change.

Word soon filtered back from the sporting directors following in the support cars to the chasing bunch to start working and despite the good intentions of the pink and blue Lampre train led by Alessandro Pettachi, it was Cavendish who exploded from the bunch and gained a decisive edge in the process over the lead actors who cherish wearing the green jersey into Paris on the final day.

The five were still together at the base of the only climb of the day, a category four stroll over the 3.3km long bridge of the Cote du Pont de Saint Nazaire 55km from the finish, which saw FDJ's Delage take the only point on offer in the polka dot jersey competition under the new rules introduced for this 98th edition of the Tour.

Once the field got down the other side, the wind kicked-in fracturing the peloton into several groups, the damage done with the lead of the breakaways down to a very manageable 90 seconds.

The cat and mouse tactics between the chasing bunch and the five breakaways continued until they were eventually caught inside the final nine kilometres, leaving it to the heads of state of the sprinters their day in the sun before the mountain goats take over, starting with stage four to Mur-de-Bretagne that features a third category climb at the finish.
With three stages completed, it still remains anyone's Tour.

Provisional Stage 3 results: Tyler Farrar (Garmin Cervelo) 4hrs. 40mins. 21secs 1, Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) 2, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) 3.

Yellow Jersey: Thor Hushovd (Garmin Cervelo)