Today, the riders ... slowly connected Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire to Nuits-Saint-Georges over 202.5 kilometers. When a 5 riders strong breakaway was taken back, Thomas Voeckler and Blel Kadri decided to give it a try. When the French Champion and Kadri were also taken back at 5 kilometers from the finish, the sprinters teams started to get ready for the second bunch sprint of this Paris-Nice 2011.
Matthew Goss, getting around some riders on the ground at the end of the stage, was the fastest in this sprint and thus took not only the stage victory but also the yellow jersey of leading rider in the general classification. The Australian rider thus took his 6th stage victory since the start of this season!

The summary of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2011

Early this afternoon, 172 French riders came to the start of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2011. Romain Sicard, one of the two French riders of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team in this edition of Paris-Nice didn't start because of an injury to his right knee.

After only a few kilometers, Cédric Pineau (FDJ) initiated the creation of a leading group with 5 riders, together with Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Jussi Veikkanen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Cyril Gautier (Europcar Team) and Romain Hardy (Bretagne-Schuller). Their gap on the peloton gets to its maximum after 65 kilometers, 4'35". The peloton continued quietly behind them. Indeed, in the 3 first hours of the race, the average was only 35.3 km/h, something which is quite rare in a UCI WorldTour race.

However, led by the team of the general classification leader Thomas De Gendt, Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team, the gap slowly went down, and was only 14 seconds at the top of the only climb of the day, the Côte de Bécoup. Just before the peloton got back on the leading riders, the French Champion, Thomas Voeckler, decided to attack and among the riders of the initial leading group only Blel Kadri could follow him at about 20 kilometers from the finish.

At 5 kilometers from the finish, the leading duo gets however taken back by the peloton as well and the different sprinters' teams start to find their place for a bunch sprint. Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Yoann Offredo (FDJ) end up on the ground in the final part of the race and Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad), who managed to stay on his bike, wins the stage in a sprint, ahead of Heinrich Haussler (Team Garmin-Cervélo) and Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha Team).

The classifications after the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2011

The stage classification for the 3rd stage Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire > Nuits-Saint-Georges

The top 5 of this 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2011 is completed by José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) and Geraint Thomas (Team Sky).

1/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad) - 5h16'48"
2/ Heinrich Haussler (Team Garmin-Cervélo)
3/ Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha Team)
4/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team)
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky)

The general classification after the 3rd stage

Thomas De Gendt loses his yellow jersey to the Australian sprinter as well:

1/ Matthew Goss ([[HTC-Highroad) - 14h22'34"
2/ Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) - +0'02"
3/ Heinrich Haussler (Team Garmin-Cervélo) - +0'06"
4/ Gregory Henderson (Team Sky)
5/ Denis Galimzyanov (Katusha Team) - +0'08"

Jérémy Roy, 6th in the general classification at 9 seconds behind Goss promissed a nice show tomorrow, on Twitter. Will he add some more kilometers to his 540 kilometers in a breakaway since the start of this season?

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice 2011 | Paris-Nice

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