Third stage in this Tour de France, and we have another hilly-rated stage. Well, only the last 5 km are hilly, as the previous 160 km are basically flat. Today the stage ends in Mur-de-Bretagne, a climb of 3 km, where the best punchy sprinters, like Van Stayen or Demare, and the best puncheur, like race leader Sagan, Spilak or Lutsenko will have to fight for the stage win. Yesterday we saw SaganÂ’'s show in Boulogne-sur-Mer. With that performance in everyoneÂ’s minds, the Slovak will be the most watched today
Start line in Lorient, and we can see the different leaders of the classifications in the front of the bunch focused before the real departure of the stage. ThereÂ’s a lot of wind today, so the riders will have to be careful with echelons in the last part of the stage before Mur-de-Bretagne
This is, at the very least, very surprising. Alexey Lutsenko has attacked in the first km of the stage, and obviously Moser is chasing hard now. Lutsenko is second in GC, after being beated yesterday by Sagan in the final kms, and is one of the stage favourites for today, so itÂ’s a strange move to try to get in the BotD
Stybar was pulling so hard in the bunch, that he has created a gap to the rest of the group, taking with him only the race leader Sagan, Wellens, Kragh Andersen and Weiss. In front, Lutsenko and Bagdonas have around 20 seconds on the leaderÂ’s group and 30 further to the rest of the bunch
And this rhythm, together with the wind, has caused some splits in the big group, with around 50 riders being left behind, including some sprinters like Boeckmans, Vanderbiest or Keukeleire. And we havenÂ’t even done 10 km in this stage...
After 50 km of stage, finally 3 riders have been able to form the breakaway of the day, which includes KoM leader Barbero, who is trying to defend it.
Hermans Bekmanis Barbero
What'Â’s wrong with Lutsenko? 110 km to the finish and the Kazakh is attacking again. No one understand his strategy. He is quickly gaining time on both bunch and the BotD.
A few kms later, Lutsenko has already caught the breakaway, and all four have a one-minute gap to the bunch, where Moser domestiques are trying to bring him back
In the middle of the chase, there is a Cat.4 climb, where Hermans somehow beats Lutsenko to take the points. As in the start of the stage, Moser have created a small group with a couple of domestiques, Sagan and a few other riders, although teams like Festina and Wiesenhof are pulling in the big group to have the race controlled, as Amador is on SaganÂ’s group
Cote de Laz - Cat. 4
Hermans 5
Lutsenko 3
Bekmanis 1
The climb is 90 km away from the finish, and at this point, some riders are being dropped completely exhausted from the bunch, including two of the injured climbers, Tenorio and Nerz. ItÂ’s going to be a very long day for both riders, trying to finish inside the time limit
Lutsenko is finally caught, as he seems like he canÂ’t hold that high rhythm any longer. After a few kms of calm, Senyenov attacks with 60 km to go. He is far for being a top puncheur, and with a tired bunch after the intense stage so far, his best chance for the win might be this
But the intermediate sprint that is only a few kms later kills that move from the Gazelle rider, as some sprinters go for the points, like Demare, Boeckmans or Van Stayen
Intermediate Sprint - Spezet
Senyenov 6
Demare 4
Boeckmans 2
Nothing has happened in the last 40 km, as the rhythm was not too high, set by Moser and Festina, working for their leaders. We have also seen riders from Puma and Evonik sometimes working in the front. The gap to Tenorio, who couldnÂ’t even follow NerzÂ’s group, is more than 15 minutes now, and is on real danger of finishing outside the time limit now
All stays the same under the 10 km arc, with Moser and Festina riders in the front, and most of the GC riders inside the first 30 places in the group
3 km to go, and the riders are starting Mur-de-Bretagne. Taaramäe has placed himself in the first places, with Spilak and Gesink, ready to attack - or defend - if he sees the oportunity. Demare and Van Stayen are nowhere to be seen, so they won’t be involved in the fight for the win today.
With 2 km left Gesink is surprisingly setting a high rhythm instead of attacking, which is making the stage look like ideal for Sagan, who is perfectly placed in Spilak'Â’s wheel, although Van Stayen is finally visible inside the first 30 riders, but with some riders ahead of him, making his progression a lot more harder
Gesink finally attacks with 1,7 km left. Spilak follows the move inmediately, while Taaramäe is having troubles to follow them. Van Stayen has suddenly appeared in the fourth place of the bunch, but that gap that Taaramae can’t close might prevent him from winning the stage. Also, Sagan seems like either he’s waiting to make his move or that he doesn’t have anything left to fight for the stage
It has turned out that Sagan was just waiting to his distance, but that has allowed Demare to stuck on his wheel. The duo has a gap to recover to the leading four riders, but they are clearly slowing down
Look at Taaramäe! The Estonian seems to be the only one of the first four who can keeps sprinting, and is about to overtake them all. Also, next to Sagan and Demare, Wellens is flying now
Taaramäe is now in the lead with 400 metres left, and despite Gesink and Spilak having started to sprint, they can’t match the Estonian’s speed
200 metres to go and Taaramäe has a commanding lead. Gesink and Spilak are fighting for the second place and those 4 extra bonus seconds, while Van Stayen is off the battle. Demare seems to be gaining ground on the Belgian rider, as well overtaking Sagan for fifth place
Only 100 metres left, but Taaramäe is slowing down! Gesink and Spilak are coming much quicker than him, and his win is on big danger now
Rein Taaramae wins in Mur-de-Bretagne! Really great performance from the Wiesenhof rider as he wasnÂ’t at all a favourite for this stage. This puts him in prime position to take tomorrow the GC lead after the TT. Gesink holds off Spilak to take second place
Van Stayen manages to keep the fourth place ahead of Demare, Sagan and Lutsenko. Sagan will keep his Maillot Jaune for another day
Wellens, Phinney and Yates complete the top10, with none of them losing time to the first riders. Also, a couple of Festina riders finishing all in the same time
A group with same GC riders, like Haig, Dekker, Nibali or Guldhammer arrives now. It will be up the jury whether they lose some time or not, but itÂ’s very likely that theyÂ’ll end up losing around 40 seconds
Really bad for Amador, who arrives in a rather big group who will lose over a minute. Not the best start for his GC hopes
29 minutes have had to pass to see Tenorio finish the stage. But the Spanish climber has made it! He is inside the time limit, as well as Bakari and Matte, who finished even later than him
Taaramae goes to the podium to receive his trophy as stage winner!
Sagan is still the race leader, with the same to Lutsenko and Yates as before the stage. Taaramae jumps up to fourth place, 47 seconds behind the Slovak, while the rest of the top10 is filled with GC riders, like Gesink, Spilak, Phinney or Wellens, except for Van Stayen and Roy.
Tomorrow we have the first TT of the race. 25,5 km in a route which has a climb at the start. ThereÂ’s no way Sagan can keep his loses inside the minute to riders like Taaramae, Phinney, Gesink or Spilak, so tomorrow we'Â’ll see a new race leader after the stage
