André Greipel used another great lead out from his Lotto-Belisol squad and this time blasted to victory, although stage two winner Mark Cavendish (Sky Procycling) was not in contention after being taken out in a crash with 2.7 km to race.
Greipel and Lotto-Belisol proved how valuable it can be to have a strong lead out for the sprints, at the head of affairs and in front of the big crash when it happened. Bernhard Eisel (Sky Procycling) seemed to take a bit of blame afterward, telling reporters that he touched wheels with Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge), while it appeared that Garmin-Sharp’s Robbie Hunter was the first to hit the deck.
Several other sprinters either went down or were hung up, including Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat), and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), who had a touch of wheels with a downed rider but kept it upright.
Ahead of the fray and in the final straight, Greipel used his lead out from team-mate and Tour debutant Greg Henderson to perfection, and used a turn of speed big enough to hold off Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) and Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano), who finished second and third respectively.
“I’m so happy today, my guys, they supported me really well,” Greipel smiled to reporters at the finish. “I’m just so happy to have those guys on my side, such strong riders to lead me out. It’s what we wanted to do, winning a stage. I’m so happy.”
Goss hit the line fourth and Sagan was fifth to hold on to his green jersey. Race leader Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan) was held up behind the crash inside the final three kilometres but got through unscathed, credited with the same time as the winner. The top ten in the general classification remains unchanged.
“I think it was a difficult stage, a sprinters stage, with slow and steady tempo,” Cancellara said. “Then everyone has fresh legs, and you come close to the final and there’s this whole bunch that’s cruising at 60km an hour. I was lucky I could come through [the crash] and come to the finish.”
A pleasant ride through French countryside with three men away
It was a quick pace out of Abbeville, but the peloton soon settled on three men allowed to move up the road, as Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar), David Moncoutie (Cofidis), and Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun) formed the day’s main escape. The main bunch may have been seeking a bit of a respite after some of yesterday’s fireworks, and the leading trio had five minutes in hand after fifteen kilometres.
Lotto-Belisol came forward but didn’t do much to keep the escape in check, so Radioshack-Nissan assumed their positions in support of Cancellara, with the breakaway eight minutes up the road. The stage featured four categorized hills, and for the first time in the race, someone not named Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), the current king of the mountains, would have the opportunity at some points.
Ultimately, Moncoutie and Delaplace would end up splitting the four points on the menu for the day. Race pace was slower than scheduled for the first two hours of racing, but the breakaway was in check with 100 kilometres to the finish, at a gap of 5’35”. As the main group took on lunch, the gap increased slightly and was back out near seven minutes as the intermediate sprint in Fécamp loomed.
Arashiro took the big prize out of the leading group, while behind, Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) remained calm through an agonizingly slow rear wheel change. In the peloton, Orica-GreenEdge again ramped it up for the sprint, with Cavendish in ideal position on the wheel of Goss. It wasn’t easy, but the Manx Missile took the most remaining points ahead of the Aussie, with Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) edging out Sagan for third.
Things calmed down again for the next hour-plus, as a rain shower sprung up with 50km to go, giving everything a proper soaking with few negative affects beyond that. Yaroslav Popovich (Radioshack-Nissan) asked for help with the pace-making, and Katusha, FDJ-BigMat, and Liquigas-Cannondale obliged, if a bit reluctantly.
The day’s first crash put Jonathan Cantwell (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank) into the left side ditch, catching up AG2R-La Mondiale team-mates Jean-Christophe Peraud and Mickael Cherel, along with Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale). Nibali immediately had two lieutenants by his side to pace him back, with several Cofidis men grabbing a free ride.
A sprint is inevitable but the big crash disrupts it
With 30 kilometres to race and the gap at 2’40”, Arashiro tried to influence a faster pace up front. At just two minutes down in the overall classification, the Japanese rider had much to gain if the peloton mistimed it. But with Team Sky near the front for the first time, the gap to the escapees tumbled with regularity. Fifteen kilometres later, it was inside a minute, but the break held it together, until Delaplace set off on one final effort under the ten-kilometre banner.
At just that point, the route featured an uncategorized lump that several riders tried to use as a launching pad. After several individual flyers including a few big names, the group of Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Jerome Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), and Maxime Bouet (AG2R-La Mondiale) formed to try their luck. They quickly absorbed the leading trio but the bunch would not give them any daylight. Chavanel, Dumoulin, and Wout Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM) were the final three caught before the lead out trains took over.
It was Lampre-ISD and Lotto-Belisol on the front when Hunter hit the deck hard at 2.7km to go. Many riders were able to avoid crashing on top of the South African, but the chain reaction sent other riders sprawling behind, including Cavendish.
Race leader Cancellara and green jersey Sagan narrowly missed out on the crash, remaining upright and unscathed.
Little groups ambled gingerly to the finish, having assessed initial injuries and grabbed new bikes, with further physical ailments and possible time losses to be assessed in the hours and days ahead.