Tour De France 2015 Stage 3

The third stage began in Anvers and finished atop the Mur de Huy. It was 159.5km long, and was won by Joachim Rodriguez. However, the stage would be remembered more for a crash that forced a number of contenders to abandon.There were 3 Category 4 climbs; the Cote De Bohiussau, the Cote d'Ereffe and the Cote de Cherave. There was an intermediate sprint in Havelange, and the race finished on a Category 3 climb, the Mur de Huy.

## The Stage

The start of the race was postponed due to a Katusha rider havving a flat tyre. Once the race started, the first rider to attack was Europcar's Bryan Naulleau. Naulleau was soon joined by MTN Qhubeka's Serge Pauwels, Bora Argon 18's Jan Barta and IAM Cycling's Martin Elmiger. Their time gap to the peloton increased up until 40km, where their time gap was 3:55. The time gap then decreased and , as the riders were about to be caught, there were two consecutive crashes that injured a number of the riders. These crashes forced the race director to neutralise the race until the summit of the Cote de Bohissau. William Bonnet, Tom Dumoulin, Dmitry Kozontchuk, and Simon Gerrans were all forced to abandon, Bonnet appearing to have come off the worst. Yellow Jersey Fabian Cancellara was also involved in the crash and was clearly injured, however he carried on with the race, despite being a way back from the other riders, along with Laurens Ten Dam, Johan Van Summeren, Michael Matthews and Gregory Henderson. Once the race restarted, the peloton split in two before the intermediate sprint. André Greipel, John Degenkolb and Nacer Bouhanni gained the most points in the sprint. After the sprint, the peloton reunited. Europcar's Angelo Tulik attemted to break away, however he was soon caught. BMC's Michael Schar was first over the Cote d'Ereffe, giving him the first Mountains point of the Tour. As the peloton ascended the Cote de Cherave, riders such as Greipel, Thibaut Pinot and Rui Costa were dropped off the back. Rafal Majka was the first over the Mountain, gaining him a point. As the riders ascended the Mur de Huy, the front group of around 40 riders began to split up. At the front of the action were Team Sky's Chris Froome and Katusha's Joachim Rodriguez. In the final sprint, Rodriguez beat Froome, giving him the stage victory. AG2R's Alexis Vuillermoz finished 3rd.

## Overall Standings

Due to Fabian Cancellara suffering an injury and Tom Dumoulin abandoning, neither of them remained in the Top 10. 6th placed Daniel Oss also lost a lot of time. This allowed Tony Gallopin, Alberto Contador and Zdenek Stybar to enter the Top 10 in 4th, 8th and 10th places respectively. The Yellow Jersey was worn by Chris Froome, gaining 1 second over Tony Martin due to his 6 second time bonus. Peter Sagan and Geraint thomas lost small amounts of time, moving them down to 6th and 9th positions respectively, allowing other riders to move up the rankings. Most notably was Tejay Van Garderen, who moved up to 3rd.

Joachim Rodriguez and Chris Froome gained 2 and 1 points for finishing the stage first and second resectively. Schar and Majka also gained one point each for ascending the other two mountains first.

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Due to winning the intermediate sprint, Greipel increased his lead in the Points classificaion over Sagan. Froome gained points for coming second in the stage, and Cavendish gained points for finishing 5th in the intermediate sprint.

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Peter Sagan won the White Jersey