Stage 3 - Farrar Breaks His Duck

On the day that the US celebrates its independence, young American Tyler Farrar finally broke his Tour de France hoodoo in winning stage 3, a 198km journey from Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon. But rather than dedicate the victory to his homeland, Farrar’s win was in memory of his dear friend, Wouter Weylandt, who tragically died during Stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia earlier this year. Farrar shaped a ‘W’ with his hands as he crossed the line, in a moving tribute to the young Belgian.

The first pure sprint stage of the 2011 edition was marred by a messy final kilometre which eliminated most of the other leading sprinters from contention. Mark Cavendish almost crashed into the barriers rounding the final bend, and despite this large loss of momentum still managed to finish fifth on the stage. Last year’s green jersey winner Alessandro Pettachi was also caught up in the chaos, as Sammy Dumoulin flew into the barriers in the final turn. With many of the big names hindered, Farrar took advantage of the perfect lead out train from his Garmin Team (led out by none other than Yellow Jersey wearer Thor Hushovd) to cruise to the line for his maiden tour victory. Farrar won with relative ease, despite Romain Feillu storming home for second in what was a nice return to form. Jose Joaquin Rojas, 4th on the opening stage, completed the podium in 3rd, and took over the lead in the Green Jersey competition in the process. I doubt he has any chance of holding the thing long term. While Farrar did also win the intermediate sprint in the opening stage with relative ease, I would like to see him take a stage win with Cavendish and Pettachi in an even contest before labelling him a legitimate contender for the Green Jersey this year.

The green jersey competition was not without its usual controversy, with Thor Hushovd and Mark Cavendish disqualified from the day’s intermediate sprint after bumping into each other on the approach to the line. This will only cost them 9 and 10 points respectively in the competition and I don’t think it will have that much impact, given the new points structure, on the final standings in Paris. What it does show however, is that given a fair run to the line, Cavendish is still the man to beat on the flat stages. Let’s not forget, after missing out on the first two sprint stages in 2010, Cavendish went on to collect 5 stage victories, and I would not put it past him to do similar again. The bigger concern was the disorganisation in the HTC-High Road train coming into the finish. Normally they are flawless at delivering the Manx man to the finish but they looked all over the shop last night. It will be interesting to see if they can get their act in order next time out.

There was no change to the overall standings with the only heart palpitations for the GC boys occurring when Ivan Basso missed a split in the peleton caused by crosswinds on the run into the finish. The peleton managed to re-form however and no time was lost (and in any case Basso is a B-grade GC candidate at best this year).

Yellow Jersey – Thor Husvhod
Green Jersey – Jose Joaquin Rojas
Polka Dot Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
White Jersey – Geraint Thomas

Photo courtesy of cyclingnews.