The third stage of the La troisième stage du Tour of Italy 2010 took place today between Amsterdam and Middelburg and as expected the wind highly influenced this stage. Once a leading group of 3 riders was taken back, the peloton was split up in several groups and this had an important impact on the general classification which is now led by Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and on the number of sprinters who were able to try to win this stage. Despite the fact that only André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) was accompanied by some of his team mates, Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) finally won this third stage.

A resume of the third stage of the Giro d'Italia 2010 - Amsterdam > Utrecht

Being watched by Wesley Sneijder, the midfielder of Inter Milan and the boyfriend of Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen who is the Dutch face of the Giro d'Italia 2010, the 197 riders started this morning from Amsterdam at 11.15AM for a 224 kilometer stage towards Middelburg in Zealand.

Soon after the start Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step) and Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank, photo) form the leading group of the day and 40 kilometers further their gap with the peloton is up to 8 minutes. In the intermediate sprint in Zoetermeer these three riders thus take the points with the Dutch Stamsnijder passing the line first, ahead of Pineau and Kaisen.

At 90 kilometers from the finish the leading group is taken back by the peloton and the wind is than doing its work to split up the peloton in three groups: the biggest group ahead including the pink jersey Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and most of the other favourites, the second group including Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini, photo) and a third small group with some riders around Domenico Pozzovivo of the Colnago - CSF Inox team. With the wind, several crashes and some material problems, several small groups of riders were formed at about 40 kilometers from the finish.

One of the victimes of one of these crashes was Christian Vandevelde (Garmin-Transitions) who became the second rider to leave this Giro d'Italia 2010 with a broken collar bone. The Giro is definitely not his race because last year he already abandoned the race due to a crash in the third stage as well!

When Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins end up on the ground in yet another crash, Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) takes profit of this by pulling on the leading group and thus trying to gain some precious seconds on his competitors. This works out well for him and on the finish line he takes over the pink jersey from Evans.

In the last kilometer, only the HTC-Columbia team has several riders ahead, including its sprinter André Greipel (photo) and the team is thus naturally leading the peloton. Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step), Robert Förster (Team Milram) and Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini) are at the front as well but they don't have any team mates surrounding them. At about 500 meters from the finish, the Australian sprinter of the Rabobank team, Graeme Brown, also comes to take his place at the front, riding shoulder-to-shoulder with Weylandt.

All seems in place for André Greipel to make this work out to a stage win, but in the final bend his train loses its structure and Wouter Weylandt and Graeme Brown appear behind Matthew Goss of HTC-Columbia when he thinks he's leaving his place to Greipel. Brown gives everything he can until a few meters from the finish but Wouter Weylandt, who's normally part of the train for Quick Step (!), turns out to be unbeatable in this sprint and the Belgian rider thus takes his first win this year.

The video's of the Amsterdam > Middelburg stage

> Click here to view the images of the last kilometer of the third stage Amsterdam > Middelburg of the Giro d'Italia 2010

> Click here to see a video resume of the third stage Amsterdam > Middelburg of the Tour of Italy 2010

The classifications

The Amsterdam > Middelburg stage classification

Here's the top 10 for this stage:
1/ Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) - 5h00'06" - 44,785 km/h
2/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank)
3/ Robert Förster (Team Milram)
4/ Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini)
5/ Adam Blythe (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
6/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia)
7/ Linus Gerdemann (Team Milram)
8/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo)
9/ Thomas Rohregger (Team Milram)
10/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana)

The general classification

In the overall ranking, Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) and Carlos Sastre lose 46 precious seconds while the disaster is even worse for Bradley Wiggins who arrived in Middelburg 3'59" after the winner!

Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) are in the same second leading the general classification, followed at one second by David Millar (Garmin-Transitions).

1/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - 10h07'18"
2/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - +0'00"
3/ David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) - +0'01"
4/ Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) - +0'05"
5/ Marcel Sieberg (HTC-Columbia) - +0'07"
6/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia) - +0'10"
7/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - +0'10"
8/ Linus Gerdemann (Team Milram) - +0'12"
9/ Stefano Garzelli (Acqua & Sapone) - +0'15"
10/ Pieter Weening (Rabobank) - +0'16"

Points classification

With his second place in today's stage, Graeme Brown (Rabobank) takes enough points to take the lead in the points classification. The stage winner follows him 1 point behind:

1/ Graeme Brown (Rabobank) - 28 points
2/ Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step) - 27 points
3/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) - 25 points
4/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - 25 points
5/ André Greipel (HTC-Columbia) - 24 points
6/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia) - 22 points
7/ Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing Team) - 22 points
8/ Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) - 20 points
9/ Robert Förster (Team Milram) - 19 points
10/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 16 points

The King of the Mountain classification

Since there were no climbs listed in today's stage this classification remains unchanged:
1/ Paul Voss (Team Milram) - 4 points
2/ Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago - CSF Inox) - 4 points
3/ Rick Flens (Rabobank) - 4 points

Best young rider classification

With his second place in the general classification, in the same second as Alexandre Vinokourov, Richie Porte continues to lead this classification:

1/ Richie Porte (Team Saxo Bank) - 10h07'18"
2/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Columbia) - +0'10"
3/ Valerio Agnoli (Liquigas) - +0'25"
4/ Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank) - +0'46"
5/ Jos van Emden (Rabobank) - +0'50"

What's next: transfer, rest day and team time trial

Finally, the ash clound of the Icelandic volcano didn't keep the riders from taking their flight to the north of Italy tonight and they can thus really take a rest day tomorrow.

On Wednesday they will ride a 33 kilometer team time trial from Savigliano to Cuneo.

> Click here to see the Tour of Italy 2010 route on Google Maps

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2010

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