Finishing straight crash disrupts the sprinters but luckily brings few riders down
Matt Goss (HTC-Highroad) won the third stage of Paris-Nice between Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire and Nuits-Saint-Georges in a chaotic sprint finish. The Australian outsprinted compatriot Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Cervélo) and Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha) after a finishing straight crash from Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) threatened to bring down the front of the pack.
“It’s terrific,” said Goss after his victory. “Yesterday it was close, today I had a good run. It was unfortunate that there was a fall but to me it was perfect. To get a stage for the team was the number one goal.”
Time bonuses on the line handed the Australian the race leader’s yellow jersey, overtaking incumbent leader Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) by 2 seconds.
“The jersey is a bonus,” Goss said. “There were tight corners in the finale and I was a little far back in the chicane but in the end I had a good run. The crash disrupted the sprint a little bit but it was all right for me.”
Once again an attack from the gun
After two days of flat racing in the Paris area, the race crossed over to the rolling hills of Burgundy, where it would finish in the town that produces some of the region’s most famous vintages.
In similar events to stage two a group of five riders attacked almost as son as the flag was dropped at the end of the stage’s neutral zone. Cédric Pineau (FDJ), Jussi Veikkanen (OmegaPharma-Lotto), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller) and Blel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale) were to be the day’s long breakaway.
All three riders were just 14 seconds behind De Gendt in the overall standings but it was Pineau, by virtue of his finishing positions in the first two stages, who became the race leader on the road.
By the 18km mark the quintet led the peloton by 3’05 and, at first, this was as far as they were allowed to get by De Gendt’s Vacansoleil-DCM team; the gap fluctuated at around this distance for some time before rising once more to a maximum of 4’35” after 65km.
Vacansoleil-DCM now decided that enough was enough at this point and the Dutch team began to increase the pace on behalf of its Belgian leader.
After 106km the lead had come down to just 1’55 but, with no desire in the peloton to catch the day’s rabbits too soon, it was allowed to go back up to 3’30” in the next 10km.
As the leaders entered the final 50km, and the hilly roads of Burgundy, their advantage began to tumble. The gap was cut from 3 minutes to 1’45” in the space of 15km as Vacansoleil-DCM continued to control the peloton on the only classified climb of the day.
One break is caught as another one goes
The leaders were caught on the 2nd category Côte de Bécoup with 21km to go and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) attacked immediately. Kadri managed to latch onto the French champion’s wheel as it went by, while Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) tried and failed to chase across to the two Frenchmen.
Garmin-Cervélo, then Liquigas-Cannondale, led the chase with Vacansoleil-DCM happy to sit behind, as Voeckler and Kadri’s lead gradually crept up towards 20 seconds.
With under 10km to go, as the pace was increasing, Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) punctured. The French rider, who has targeted this race, found himself with a tough chase to get back on to avoid losing time; he made it with almost 3km to spare.
With Johan Van Summeren (Garmin-Cervélo) setting a fierce pace on the front of the peloton over the last climb of the day, the duo’s advantage steadily decreased and they were finally caught with 5km to go; Kadri had spent almost 200km at the front of the race.
All together now but chaos is about to strike
With the peloton all together the sprinters’ teams took over in the shape of Katusha and Lampre-ISD; the speed was kept very high and no one was able to jump off the front.
The final kilometre featured several sweeping bends, but with the peloton strung out by Katusha and Liquigas-Cannondale, with Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) trying to bring yesterday’s stage winner Greg Henderson through, there were no incidents, until the first few riders reached the final right-angle bend with 300m to go.
Sitting very close to the front of the peloton, Sagan’s rear tyre rolled off the rim as he was leaning over to take the corner. The Slovakian went down in the middle of the road, right in the path of many of the other sprinters. Nikolas Maes (Quick Step), Jürgen Roelandts (OmegaPharma-Lotto) and Yoan Offredo (FDJ) came down on the right side of the road, but thankfully the majority were able to get past.
Thomas found himself on the front and, with Henderson delayed by Sagan’s crash, he went for the sprint himself. Goss, who has already taken six victories this season, was too fast for the British champion though, and he cruised past in the closing metres.
Haussler had to go the long way around but managed to get second place, with Galimzyanov taking third.
Despite all the hard work done by Vacansoleil-DCM, De Gendt lost his yellow jersey to Goss thanks to time bonuses on the line for the Australian. As the race gets hillier as it heads south though, he will have a tough time holding the lead for long.
"Tomorrow's a tough stage to defend the lead, but it's not impossible,” said Goss. “There are two climbs about 50km from the finish, so hopefully I can get over them okay and at least hold it for another day."
Result stage 3
1. Matt Goss (Aus) HTC-Highroad
2. Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Cervélo
3. Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha
4. José Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar
5. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Tem Sky
6. Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky
7. Anthony Ravard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
8. Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre-ISD
9. Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM
10. Valerio Agnoli (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
Standings after stage 3
1. Matt Goss (Aus) HTC-Highroad
2. Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM @2s
3. Heinrich Haussler (Aus) Garmin-Cervélo @ 6s
4. Greg Henderson (NZl) Team Sky @ 6s
5. Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha @ 8s