Tour de France 2015: Stage 3

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January 1 - July 26, Anvers, France, Road - WorldTour

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Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the 102nd Tour de France. Stage 3 sees the riders travel 159.5km from Anvers to Huy with racing getting underway at 13.10 local time.

 

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of stage 3 of the Tour de France. Yesterday didn't disappoint - let's hope we're in for more excitement today. 

So, after two days of pan-flat racing, we have some hills in store today as the Tour morphs into the Flèche-Wallonne. The Ardennes Classic is so often decided on the final climb of the short but devilishly steep Mur de Huy, and that's likely to be the case today. You can have a look at what's in store by clicking here. 

There are just under 15 minutes to go until the peloton roll out. In the meantime, you can catch up with the events of yesterday - and boy was it eventful - with our report, complete with photos and standings. 

And they're off! The riders are on their way and are rolling gently through the streets of Antwerp and the neutralised zone. 

 

A yellow carpet and hero's greeting in Antwerp for star of the show Fabian Cancellara.

Etixx-Quick Step were one of the teams to make the race yesterday but ended up virtually empty handed. World Champion Michael Kwiatkowski was awarded the combativity prize but the stage and yellow jersey eluded the Belgian team. Mark Cavendish was rather unhappy after the stage and you can read his thoughts by clicking here. 

We've gone through kilometre zero but there is a delay to the official race start as yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara has punctured in the neutral zone!

Here we go then! Cancellara is back on, though not at the front, and Christian Prudhomme emerges from the roof of his Skoda and gets the stage underway. 

Four riders have gone straight on the attack. They are Serge Pauwels (MTN-Qhubeka), Martin Elmiger (IAM), Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18) and Bryan Nauleau (Europcar)

That quartet was allowed to go straight away with no opposition and their lead is already approaching a minute. They could be away for most of the day. 

 

Here's the profile for today's stage. It's all fairly gentle until the hills start to appear in the last 50 kilometres. 

144km remaining from 159km

Cancellara is off the back again. Another mechanical, perhaps. He's quickly back in the bunch, though, still on that yellow bike of his. 

131km remaining from 159km

Stat attack:

Alberto Contador found himself on the right side of the crucial split yesterday. The plan for today? Stay out of trouble. Here is what the Tinkoff-Saxo DS, Sean Yates, told letour.com this morning:

124km remaining from 159km

The three jersey wearers on today's stage. After today's stage we'll have a polka-dot jersey too. 

We're staying within the confines of Belgium today. It is the 46th time that the Tour de France has visited the neighbouring country in its 102-year history. That’s more than any other country. Switzerland, incidentally, is in second place with 20.

Yesterday's maillot jaune wearer Rohan Dennis had a small crash near the back of the bunch. Nothing serious, though, and he gave the thumbs up to the TV cameras. 

We're approaching the birthplace of Eddy Merckx: Meensel-Kiezegem. The town is today unveiling a statue of the Belgian, who recently turned 70. The man widely regarded as the greatest cyclist of all time is following today's stage with Bernard Hinault. 

111km remaining from 159km

For those who love their tech, the Tour is a veritable feast. You can check out on-bike cameras with live-stream paraphernalia, new aero bikes, and plenty more in this piece here. 

12km remaining from 159km

Trek continues to set the pace, with the teams of the GC riders also protecting their leaders by riding near the front in long lines, with the leader protected from the wind.

Serge Pauwels' attack was carefully planned by the MTN - Qhubeka. He is the only Belgian rider in the team and so is enjoy a big day out front at home.

Statistics show that Pauwels has been working the most on the front of the break, doing 27% of the time on the front. 

This year Cyclingnews has a daily podcast after every stage, thanks to support from Eurosport UK. 

As you would expect, the crowds along the roadside are huge in Belgium, with lots of beer flowing in the warm, summer weather.

85km remaining from 159km

Who do you think will win today? Leave your prediction and see what others think on our forum page.

As the stage rolls on, we've got breaking news on the Astana MPCC case. 

After the Astana team decided to ignore the voluntary team's association's rules and let Lars Boom start the Tour, despite his low cortisol level, the MPCC board of directors has announced that the Astana team has been temporary suspended until a full board meeting.

77km remaining from 159km

Fabian Cancellara is hoping to defend his yellow jersey today but he has admitted that he has never raced or even ridden the Mur de Huy during his long career. 

It's lunch time at Le Tour. The peloton is passing through the feed zone.  

Most riders are grabbing a musette from their team soigneur who are at the road side. 

68km remaining from 159km

The riders covered 40.3 kilometres in the second hour of racing, making for an average speed so far for the stage of 42.7kmh. 

Puncture for Tony Gallopin

Big crash in the bunch!

Lots of riders taken out in that crash on the right hand side of the road. Lots of horrible falls. That was an extremely nasty one. 

Cancellara went over his handlebars in that crash. He's on his feet but is apparently concussed. 

The race has been neutralised. And rightly so. An awful pile-up in the end. 

The crash was sparked by William Bonnet (FDK) rider hitting the deck. Maybe a touch of wheels. Riders couldn't help avoid him and many ended up ploughing into a lamppost on the side of the road. 

Sky are at the front of the bunch and it looks like the race is back on. But hang on, it's been neutralised again. The race is going to be stopped ahead of the Côte de Bohissau. 

Big news from that crash - Tom Dumoulin has abandoned the Tour de France. A great shame as he had a real chance of taking the yellow jersey today. 

The riders have been halted completely. We're at a standstill as we look to recover from the chaos. Is this the right decision? 

Laurens Ten Dam, William Bonnet, Simon Gerrans have all joined Dumoulin have all abandoned. 

Cancellara is not looking good, it seems there might be something up with his vision. He grimaces but hasn't thrown in the towel just yet.

Daniel Oss has cuts on his face and is currently receiving the ice-pack treatment. 

Lots of riders pretty badly bashed up. Johan van Summeren's jersey is torn to shreds, others too endured pretty gruesome slides along the ground. Michael Matthews and Greg Henderson amongst them. 

We're still not moving. Reports are that the organisers took the decision because all the medical staff were back dealing with those that crashed, leaving none to deal with any problems that might happen up the road. 

We're moving again. After a 10 minute delay, the riders are following Prudhomme's car and racing will recommence when they reach the top of the Côte de Bohissau. 

More trouble! The race is still neutral but bollards appear in the middle of the road and riders have to swerve to avoid colliding with them. There are arms thrown up in the air, not good. 

Correction. Ten Dam is still in the race.

We're on the Côte de Bohissau, the first classified climb of this year's Tour de France. There'll be no KOM points on offer, though, given the neutralisation. 

It has been confirmed that the race was halted because of numbers of medical crew. It does beg certain questions - how many down before a race is to be stopped? - and sets a precedent, but it's hard to argue. Riders' safety must come first. 

The race is back on. The neutralisation is over but there doesn't seem to be much appetite for racing. The peloton is ambling along at the moment. Many riders took the stoppage to move up towards the front and the order doesn't resemble the one before the crash, but there's nothing that can be done about that. 

Simon Gerrans, who is out of the race, fractured his wrist in that crash. He's off to hospital for a scan. 

41km remaining from 159km

More drama! The racing is well and truly back on and we currently have Tinkoff-Saxo and Astana making a split. They're driving furiously and have opened up a gap on the exposed roads. Can they make it stick?

It's all together at the front but crosswinds are clearly blowing from the right hand side. It's splitting behind as Astana try to force the issue. 

A couple more updates from the crash. Ten Dam dislocated his shoulder but, according the Lotto-NL-Jumbo's Twitter, was "popped back in". Elsewhere, Dmitriy Kozonchuk (Katyusha) has abandoned. 

Cancellara has been dropped by this high pace. His Trek teammates are ploughing on without him. He won't be in yellow come tomorrow, I think it's safe to say. 

André Greipel wins the intermediate sprint and consolidates his lead in the points classification. Degenkolb also had a go but couldn't match the German. 

Valverde, Pinot, and Bardet have made their way back on after being among those dropped by the pacemaking of Astana. 

27km remaining from 159km

This is the arm of Joaqium Rodríguez, who hit the deck in that crash. He was up there when the splits were being made, so it doesn't look like he has been affected too much, though he did crash yesterday, too. A former winner of Flèche-Wallonne remember. 

Tinkoff-Saxo are on the front as we approach the fourth-category Côte d’Ereffe, a 2.1 kilometre climb with an average gradient of 5 per cent. After the neutralised Côte de Bohissau, it's the first chance for mountains points in this year's Tour. 

Here are the results from that intermediate sprint:

Cannondale-Garmin hit the front as the pace stays high. They have a prime card to play today in Dan Martin. 

The riders have hit the Côte d'Ereffe and the road has narrowed. The pace slows as the road ramps up and the fight for positions is over, for now. 

Cancellara is almost a minute behind now.

Angelo Tulik attacks on the climb

Tulik is caught a couple of hundred metres ahead of the summit of the climb as Sky come to the front in numbers. 

Michael Schar (BMC) picks up the solitary KOM point on offer over the top of that cat-4 climb. 

13km remaining from 159km

We're into the business end of stage 3. Next up is the Côte de Cherave, which featured on this year's Flèche-Wallonne. We may see attacks on the climb but the chances of one staying away to the finish are slim. 

Richie Porte is the man on the front, forcing the pace. Geraint Thomas is on his wheel, with Chris Froome in P3. Tinkoff-Saxo are right behind. 

Tinkoff-Saxo take over from Sky on the front and a couple of Etixx riders lead onto the Côte de Cherave. 

The cat-4 Côte de Cherave is 1.3 kilometres with an average gradient of 8.1%. 

Froome asserts his authority! The battle for positions is on and Froome shoves his shoulder out, refusing to be bullied out of the fold. 

The bunch is thinning on this climb. Rui Costa and Thibaut Pinot have been distanced. 

Julian Arredondo puts in a dig to sweep up the mountain point for that climb. We're on the descent now and things are being led by Rafal Majka of TInkoff-Saxo. 

Etixx-QuickStep have cards to play. Tony Martin, second on GC before today, is the virtual yellow jersey and his teammates are probably going to try and defend that. It'll be a tough ask, though. Michael Kwiatkowski might be in with a chance of the stage win. 

Roman Kreuziger misjudges a corner and has to go off road. He's upright but out of the reckoning now. 

Pinot is 11 seconds back.

2km remaining from 159km

Bob Jungels is off the front and leads onto the Mur. Here we go! 

Flamme rouge. Big 4 all well positioned.

Katusha's Caruso is on the front, Mollema up there, Froome too. 

Froome brushes shoulders with Galloping and hits the front. 

Froome leads on the steepest section. On the S-bend now and Contador is right behind. 

Rodriguez attacks!

Galloping follows. Froome distanced in third

Froome now in second, he's catching rodriguez. 

Rodriguez wins! 

Froome second

Alexis Vuillermoz comes home in third with Dan Martin in fourth. 

Here's the top-10. 

Froome picked up six bonus seconds for finishing second. That's on top of the 11 seconds he put into Nibali and Quintana

That moves Froome into the overall lead

Here's the GC top-10 after stage 3: 

Another great day for Froome, who was really impressive on the Mur de Huy. Just didn't have enough to bring back Rodriguez.

Yesterday bonus seconds - and a botched Etixx sprint - deprived Tony Martin of the chance to wear yellow. More cruelty today as the German misses out by one second.

Fabian Cancellara crests the Mur de Huy and crosses the line 11:42 behind Rodríguez, a grimace on his face. 

Here is out initial report. More to follow, along with more pictures and full standings. 

Here is our initial report. More to follow, along with more pictures and full standings. 

Here's what Joaquim Rodriguez had to say after his victory.

Peter Sagan is the new leader of the young riders' classification after Tom Dumoulin's abandon. He now wears the white jersey. 

We have new wearers of three of the four jerseys after today. Froome is now in yellow, Sagan in white, and the first polka-dot jersey goes to Rodriguez thanks to his victory on that summit finish. The green points jersey remains on the shoulders of André Greipel. 

Chris Froome, the new maillot jaune, on the day's events:

The question on many people's lips after today - and whenever a GC contender takes the lead early on - is whether Froome has acquired the yellow jersey too early. 

A great shot of stage winner Joaquim Rodríguez emerging over the top of the Mur de Huy.

Two breaks in two days for Jan Barta

Lots to dissect after today's stage. As well as all the action in the closing stages and the GC shake-ups, there was that horror crash and slightly controversial stoppage of the race. It's all part of the debate over at the Cyclingnews forum. 

If you missed the crash, I don't recommend seeking out the replays, even in this age of crash porn. Here's our short report of who was caught up in it and what happened with the subsequent neutralisation of the race. 

As the riders were out on the road, news broke that the Movement Pour un Cyclisme Crédible (MPCC) have temporarily suspended Astana after Lars Boom started the Tour despite a pre-race test showing abnormally low cortisol levels. 

Want to know how the fight for the yellow jersey has been shaped by today's events? Below are the positions of the GC men (so we've taken out the likes of 2nd-placed Tony Martin), along with the number of places they've all jumped up in brackets. 

As we wrap things up, here's our full report from today's stage:

Le nouveau maillot jaune...

And with that, it's time to bring the curtain down on today's live blog. It was another great day in a Tour that has already served up considerable excitement - and we've only had two road stages.

And with that, it's time to bring the curtain down on today's live blog. It was another great day in a Tour that has already served up considerable excitement - and we've only had two road stages.

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