After taking second place on stage two, Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano) has taken his first victory of the season in the third stage of the Tour de Wallonie-Picardie/Circuit Franco-Belge between Antoing and Ichtegem. The 27-year-old Dutchman, who has spent much of the year serving as lead out man to German teammate Marcel Kittel, got the better of Chris Sutton (Team Sky), who had beaten him the day before, with Sébastien Chavanel (Europcar) taking third.
Thanks to the time bonuses on the line, and the fact that race leader Robbie McEwen (RadioShack) missed out on them in fourth place, meant that Veelers moved into the yellow jersey. He and Sutton are tied on the same time but the Dutchman has the lead thanks to his consistency across all three stages.
The breakaway of the day formed after 47 of the stage’s 156.3km, with a previous eight-man move having been chased down. Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing), William Clarke (Leopard Trek), Sébastien Delfosse (Landbouwkrediet), Ronan Van Zandbeek (Skil-Shimano) and Diego Caccia (Farnese Vini-Neri-Sottoli) escaped and were allowed to build a lead of 3’32” as they arrived at the feedzone after 87km.
A closed railway crossing saw the peloton close the gap, but the commissaires delayed the bunch long enough to reopen it once more. After 95km, as they approached the four 12.7km finishing circuits, the five riders lead reached its maximum of 4’25”, but this was the cue for the peloton to begin to bring them back.
The first time across the finish line, with 50.8km to go, the group’s advantage had been slashed to just 2’10”, and the next time around it was down to 1’07”.
With 20km to go, the lead was down to just 25 seconds and, with the third intermediate sprint of the stage approaching on the penultimate crossing of the line, Van Zandbeek and Ballan attacked and escaped from the other two. As the two of them crossed the line they were barely ahead of the peloton, which McEwen led over to take the final bonus second and move into the lead outright ahead of Sutton.
There was a brief attack from Arkimedes Arguelyes (KAT), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Edwig Cammaerts (Landbouwkrediet) in the final circuit, but the peloton was all together, under the control of Team Sky, with five kilometres to go.
Result stage 3
1. Tom Veelters (Ned) Skil-Shimano
2. Chris Sutton (Aus) Team Sky
3. Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Europcar
4. Robbie McEwen (Aus) RadioShack
5. Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Leopard Trek
6. Adam Blythe (GBr) Omega Pharma-Lotto
7. Christophe Laborie (Fra) Saur-Sojasun
8. Adrien Petit (Fra) Cofidis
9. Danny Summerhill (USA) Garmin-Cervélo
10. Michael Van Staeyen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator
Standings after stage 3
1. Tom Veelters (Ned) Skil-Shimano
2. Chris Sutton (Aus) Team Sky
3. Robbie McEwen (Aus) RadioShack @ 5s
4. Ronan Van Zandbeek (Ned) Skil-Shimano
5. Mathew Hayman (Aus) Team Sky @ 10s
6. Adam Blythe (GBr) Omega Pharma-Lotto
7. Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Leopard Trek @ 12s
8. Adrien Petit (Fra) Cofidis
9. Sébastien Chavanel (Fra) Europcar
10. Rony Martias (Fra) Saur-Sojasun @ 13s