Stage 3
Today's stage starts out flat but ends with a bunch of hills that should benefit the hilly specialists. Today's stage started with a large group of riders breaking away. The built up a huge gap of over 11 minutes with 70 kilometers to go.
They breakaway still had around 4 minutes when the bigger hills began. I was under the protection of Canadian, Ryder Hesjedal for most of the race.
Some of the favorites attacked and built a gap of around a minute. Some riders like Kreuziger and I were left in a chasing group of around 25 riders. Hesjedal was upfront of the group trying to pull back the leaders.
He was able to get the gap down to just over a minute which was very manageable for me. With 2 kilometers left the sprint began. Somehow my bike slipped and I fell hard to the ground unable to get up.
Upfront Efimkin took the stage win ahead of Lovkvist.
The race was over for me and this could possibly ruin my chances at racing in the Tour de France.
Stage
1 Vladimir Efimkin AG2R La Mondiale 4h34'34
2 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road s.t.
3 Juanma Gárate Rabobank s.t.
4 Jesús Hernández Astana Cycling Team s.t.
5 Juanjo Cobo Fuji - Servetto s.t.
6 Iñigo Landaluze Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
7 Julien El Fares Auber 93 s.t.
8 Johan Mombaerts Auber 93 s.t.
9 Thomas Voeckler Bbox Bouygues Télécom + 1'12
10 Luca Mazzanti Team Katusha s.t.
11 Johann Tschopp Bbox Bouygues Télécom s.t.
12 Maxim Iglinskiy Astana Cycling Team s.t.
13 Johnny Hoogerland Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team s.t.
14 Sylvester Szmyd Liquigas s.t.
15 Yaroslav Popovych Astana Cycling Team s.t.
16 Stef Clement Rabobank s.t.
17 Patrice Halgand Agritubel s.t.
18 Ryder Hesjedal Garmin - Slipstream s.t.
19 Kanstantsin Siutsou Team Columbia - High Road s.t.
20 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas s.t.
21 Dani Moreno Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
22 Johan Van Summeren Quick·Step s.t.
23 José Iván Gutiérrez Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
24 Aitor Hernández Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
25 Romain Villa Cofidis, le crédit en ligne s.t.
26 Sergei Klimov Team Katusha s.t.
27 Sylvain Calzati Agritubel s.t.
28 Marc De Maar Rabobank s.t.
29 Simon Spilak Lampre - N.G.C s.t.
30 Maryan Hary Cofidis, le crédit en ligne s.t.
31 David Arroyo Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
32 Simone Ponzi Lampre - N.G.C s.t.
33 Hubert Dupont AG2R La Mondiale s.t.
34 Clément Lhotellerie Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 2'27
35 Bartosz Huzarski ISD s.t.
GC
1 Julien El Fares Auber 93 7h51'22
2 Vladimir Efimkin AG2R La Mondiale + 1
3 Juanjo Cobo Fuji - Servetto + 4
4 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 5
5 Juanma Gárate Rabobank + 6
6 Johan Mombaerts Auber 93 + 9
7 Iñigo Landaluze Euskaltel - Euskadi + 17
8 Jesús Hernández Astana Cycling Team + 18
9 Sylvester Szmyd Liquigas + 1'03
10 Maryan Hary Cofidis, le crédit en ligne + 1'04
11 Ryder Hesjedal Garmin - Slipstream + 1'07
12 José Iván Gutiérrez Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
13 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 1'22
14 Thomas Voeckler Bbox Bouygues Télécom s.t.
15 Stef Clement Rabobank + 1'23
16 Johan Van Summeren Quick·Step + 1'27
17 Sylvain Calzati Agritubel + 1'28
18 Sergei Klimov Team Katusha + 1'30
19 Simone Ponzi Lampre - N.G.C s.t.
20 Marc De Maar Rabobank s.t.
