Stage Favourites:
*****Morkov(CON) ****Reihs(TMO) ***Jerome(LEC)
**Roulston(PET) *Ghyselinck(IBA)

The riders in the break: Mouris, Metlushenko, Anza, Leezer, Proch and de Backer. Behind Borussia Dortmundand Konigsegg are constantly seen on the front of the peloton, defending
the yellow jersey and El Fares respectively.

Few races have seen more decimated pelotons. For over 95% of the race there was at least 10 different large group of riders on the road at any one time. 99% of riders in the peloton were dropped at one time or another.

Shimizu of Lectosonics is right on the rear of the peloton.

With 108 kilometres to go the break gain a max advantage of 9'00 and the peloton becomes even more decimated as Koenigsegg and Borussia up the pace. The break are now down to 5 with Metlushenko dropped, the Ukraine rider would ride back up to the break before being dropped again.

The peloton constantly changes in size and shape and with 50 kilometres to go there are about 38 riders in the peloton.

41 kilometres to go: Puccio, van Hecke and Vansepeybrouck attack out of the peloton with the break at 4'38.

With 35 kilometres to go and the threesome at 2'00 and the original break at 3'45 Jerome attacks out of the peloton.

The late attackers are together and JUST....watch each other before being re-joined by the yellow jersey group. Out front Leezer and Mouris have distanced the other riders in the break.

Aer Lingus sacrificed the chances of Maes and Sieberg to look after Pate/ Hernandez and hero of stage 2, Lemoine, sacrificed himself for Ezequiel Mosquera. As a result all these riders were in the yellow jersey group with 20 kilometres to go.

All though they were really starting to tire, Mosquera even struggled to follow his teammate on the flat/downhill.

10 kilometres to go: Leezer and Mouris are still riding strong and have a sizable gap back to the peloton.

Morkov attacks. He is joined by Ghyselinck, Jerome and Puccio. Then.....all four riders slow up and are caught by the yellow jersey with 6 kilometres to go. With the break at 2'00.

Then the break are at 3'00.....3'30 and it is clear the peloton has given up the chase.

Not fancying his chances on the final hill Mouris attacks just before the finish with his final effort.

Leezer takes the win for Donbas Energo. The fact he put '33 into Mouris on the final showed who the strongest man in the break was. Leezer will be rewarded with the GC lead for his efforts today. Morkov leads the next group home over 4'00 down. With some HUGE time gaps taking place with many favourites for the GC distanced.

Stage Favourites:
*****Traksel(UKY) ****Sieberg(AER) ***Van Staeyen(ALC)
**Leezer(DON) *Reihs(TMO)

Nys leads the break over the Munkebjerg climb and gets 5 KOM points for his troubles, he will wear the KOM jersey on stage 4. The break also includes van Zandbeek, Berkhout, Gretsch and Lancaster.

This would not be the only good news for the Belgian on this cobble filled day. Nys would finish highly at all 3 intermediate sprints so he would move high up in the points classification.

Mosquera was in the gruppeto 3'00 off the peloton with 130 kilometres to go having being dropped after the first cobbled section. Today he has no help, being dropped so early he and others face a huge and significant prospect of failing to meet the time limit.....

Bluebell Creameries and Nokia Ekspla begin to curtail the break's advantage of 8'30 with 110 kilometres to go. Though why Nokia Ekspla are riding so hard is anyone's guess as they wait up as soon as Hernandez is in difficulty.

With 83 kilometres to go and the break at 5'00 Sulzberger of 7up attacks from the peloton. Not far behind McCann and Ghyselinck also attack out of the bunch.

With 53 kilometres to go the cobbles are hurting a lot of riders and the break have 3'44 with Rollin driving along the peloton.

With 17 kilometres to go and the break at 1'40 Jerome and Roulston put in a more successful looking attack out of the peloton.

But, on the final cobble section with 10 kilometres to go, right at the end, Nys finally succumbs to the pace set by the fresher man and Ghyselinck rides on.

Hansen takes advantage of the slower pace and attacks across to the Jerome/Roulston group as they catch the remains of the break.

Back in the bunch the likes of Morkov and Popovych just look at each other wondering who is to take up the chase. This allows the Jerome/Roulston/Hansen group the luxury of playing cat and mouse also.

Jerome takes second leading home a group of 4 including 2 Petro China riders. Race no.1 Hansen justifies his no.1 shirt.

The peloton let the time grow out significantly for the second straight stage. Popovych and Klostergaard lead the peloton home after attacking in the last few kilometres.

The biggest casualty who missed the cut.......Ezequiel Mosquera, the Cramp Twins, Courage the Cowardly dog and the like will be furious.

Some 20 riders also missed the cut so check the results to see if you are missing anyone.