It's another dead flat - and windy - stage. And once again, the favourites are Boonen, Bennati and Vantomme. Much will depend on whether they are able to hang on to the front group once the tempo rises.

Unlike the 2nd stage, there wasn't much pace in the beginning. Several riders managed to break away: Stevic, Kip, Kittel, Leezer and Sestili in the front group with Khatuntsev, Beppu and Navardauskas caught in-between.


Eventually, Khatuntsev managed to join the group, and the gap increased to 5'50 before the peloton started taking action with 75 km to go. A constellation of Warner Brothers, White Bear Steyr and Philips - Hummel made sure that all the breakaway riders caught with c. 25 km to go - and more importantly, they once again caused a split in the P.


This time, the Yellow Jersey did manage to stay with the front group, though, and in general, it seemd like that the riders who were in front on the previous stage were so again on this stage, e.g. Boonen, Vantomme, Steegmans, ...


While the previous stage's sprint was 'team-based', this stage's seemed more disorganized with Capecchi leading out with a small gap down to Marinangelli, Bennati, Steegmans and Croket - and Pedersen, Boonen and Vantomme further down.


With 1 km to go, it was still Capecchi leading, but with Croket and Bennati closing the gap fastly.


In the end, Bennati managed to take his first win of the season, but with Kroket defending his Leader Shirt in the best possible way.


Stage Results:

1	Daniele Bennati	La Gazzetta dello Sport	3h07'59
2	Lars Croket	White Bear - Wild Horse	s.t.
3	Eros Capecchi	Rabobank	s.t.
4	Sergio Marinangeli	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
5	Gert Steegmans	Rabobank	s.t.
6	Yoann Offredo	Rabobank	s.t.
7	Martin Pedersen	Philips - Hummel	s.t.
8	Sergei Kolesnikov	Warner Brothers	s.t.
9	Maxime Vantomme	Philips - Hummel	s.t.
10	Tom Boonen	Warner Brothers	s.t.
11	Diego Ulissi	Philips - Hummel	s.t.
12	Matej Mugerli	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
13	Matti Breschel	Philips - Hummel	s.t.
14	Yannick Talabardon	Warner Brothers	s.t.
15	Maurice Schreurs	Philips - Hummel	s.t.
16	Dmitri Kozontchuk	Rabobank	s.t.
17	Kevin Hulsmans	Warner Brothers	s.t.
18	Michael Schär	Rabobank	s.t.
19	Juan-Antonio Flecha	Warner Brothers	s.t.
20	Valerio Agnoli	White Bear - Wild Horse	s.t.
21	Dennis Van Winden	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
22	Jérôme Baugnies	Lipton Ice Tea	s.t.
23	Ivan Kovalev	Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne	s.t.
24	Rick Flens	La Gazzetta dello Sport	s.t.
25	Alberto Loddo	Lipton Ice Tea	s.t.

Overall Classement:

1	Lars Croket	White Bear - Wild Horse	6h33'15
2	Daniele Bennati	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 9
3	Aleksandr Serebriakov	Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne	+ 20
4	Pim Ligthart	Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne	s.t.
5	Ivan Kovalev	Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne	+ 25
6	Gert Steegmans	Rabobank	s.t.
7	Eros Capecchi	Rabobank	s.t.
8	Matteo Bono	La Gazzetta dello Sport	+ 28
9	Vladimir Bileka	White Bear - Wild Horse	+ 30
10	Ahmad Haidar Anuawar	M&M Cycling	+ 35
11	Michiel Van Aelbroeck	Rabobank	+ 37
12	Hervé Duclos-Lassalle	Rabobank	+ 38
13	Allan Davis	American Suzuki	+ 39
14	Mathieu Heijboer	Rabobank	s.t.
15	Tom Boonen	Warner Brothers	+ 40
16	Jean-Patrick Nazon	M&M Cycling	s.t.
17	Fabio Borghesi	American Suzuki	+ 42
18	Wouter Weylandt	Warner Brothers	+ 44
19	Yannick Talabardon	Warner Brothers	+ 46
20	Sébastien Rosseler	Warner Brothers	s.t.

Points Classification:

1	Lars Croket	White Bear - Wild Horse		45
2	Daniele Bennati	La Gazzetta dello Sport		35
3	Gert Steegmans	Rabobank		32
4	Eros Capecchi	Rabobank		25
5	Tom Boonen	Warner Brothers		22
6	Maxime Vantomme	Philips - Hummel		19
7	Allan Davis	American Suzuki		14
8	Sergio Marinangeli	La Gazzetta dello Sport		14
9	Ivan Stevic	Wikipedia		10
10	Yoann Offredo	Rabobank		10

Young Rider Classification:

1	Lars Croket	White Bear - Wild Horse	6h33'15
2	Aleksandr Serebriakov	Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne	+ 20
3	Pim Ligthart	Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne	+ 20
4	Ivan Kovalev	Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne	+ 25
5	Eros Capecchi	Rabobank	+ 25