The days go on and they look alike in Paris-Nice 2014! Yet another sunny day and a small leading group which goes off early in the stage (Julien Fouchard [Cofidis], Perrig Quémeneur [Europcar] and Romain Feillu [Bretagne-Séché]) before being taken back before the end.

Perrig Quémeneur manages to arrive on the Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours alone, still leading the race, but wasn't able to resist to the chasing peloton behind him and the stage thus finally ended in a sprint again. Two times second, in the previous stages of this Paris-Nice, but this time it was the right one for John Degenkolb (Team Argos-Shimano), who not only takes the stage win but also the yellow, green and white jerseys. Christophe Laborie keeps his polka dot jersey as the King of the Mountains leader.

The summary of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Toucy > Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours

Three riders didn't come to the start of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2014 in Toucy this morning: Lars Boom (Belkin) left the race after his crash yesterday which led to a broken elbow, Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) who announced on Twitter this morning that he would go to the hospital in Belgium, also after yesterday's crash, and Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Belisol) was the last rider who didn't start today due to his concussions after yesterday's crash.

At 11.40AM the race started when the riders left Toucy on the road to Saint-Fargeau and further, for a 180 kilometer long stage towards the Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours. After 2.5 kilometers, 3 riders got away from the peloton, Perrig Quémeneur (Team Europcar), Julien Fouchard (Cofidis, solutions crédits) and like in all previous stages a rider of the Bretagne-Séché Environnement team, Romain Feillu this time.

The gap of this leading group went up to 2'55" at kilometer 11 and then briefly went above 3 minutes. After about 80 kilometers however, the FDJ.fr team -leading the peloton since the start of the stage- however speeded up and the gap literally melted away, down to 1'35".

This didn't last long however and the 3 riders in the breakaway saw their gap go up a bit again. Enough even to wait for Julien Fouchard when he got a flat tire and to increase the gap again afterwards, to 2'05" at 40 kilometers from the finish.

At 11 kilometers from the finish, when the gap is down to 35 seconds, Perrig Quémeneur breaks away from the leading group to try to go find the stage victory in a solo attempt. When he gets on the Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours he still has a 25 seconds gap on the peloton, which has come back on the 2 other riders of the breakaway in the mean time, and he thus starts the circuit alone. With Team Giant-Shimano, of the sprinter John Degenkolb, leading the peloton, the French rider can however no longer resist to the chasing peloton and at 2 kilometers from the finish line, Quémeneur is thus taken back.

John Degenkolb, definitely willing to take a stage win after having ended second in the past two days, wins this sprint "easily", ahead of Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE). The German rider said about this: we've been trying 3 times, it didn't work out two times but this time it's a big success for the team. We proved to have the best sprinters train of the peloton and I'm really proud to be the one who can end off this work in this way.

The photos of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Toucy > Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours

All day long you've been able to discover a photo selection of this 3rd stage. All photos are now online and you can discover 100 photos of this stage in the dedicated photo section:

>> The photos of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2014: Toucy > Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2014 after the 3rd stage

Hereunder you'll find the different classifications after this 3rd stage:

Stage classification of the 3rd stage: Toucy > Circuit de Nevers Magny Cours

Let's start with the top 10 of this stage:

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 4h27'26"
2/ Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE)
3/ Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team)
4/ Borut Bozic (Astana Pro Team)
5/ Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
6/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha)
7/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr)
8/ Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing Team)
9/ Gert Steegmans (Omega Pharma-QuickStep)
10/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team)

General classification

Thanks to his stage victory on this circuit, John Degenkolb takes the lead of almost all classifications of this Paris-Nice 2014 after the 3rd stage. Indeed, 10 bonus seconds allow him to get above Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr), with 8 seconds.

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 13h14'01"
2/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - +0'08"
3/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'12"
4/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) - +0'18"
5/ Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) - +0'21"

Points classification

The German rider already wore the green jersey instead of Nacer Bouhanni, tomorrow that'll be the other way around since John Degenkolb also took the green jersey, with 11 points more than Bouhanni.

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 39 points
2/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - 28 points
3/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) - 17 points
4/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - 16 points
5/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) - 12 points

King of the Mountains classification

Since the points on the Côte de la Chapelle Saint-André, the only climb of the day, were awarded to the 3 riders in the breakaway who didn't have a place in the King of the Mountains classification yet, Christophe Laborie keeps the jersey in the Bretagne-Séché Environnement team.

1/ Christophe Laborie (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 9 points
2/ Romain Feillu (Bretagne-Séché Environnement) - 4 points
3/ Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM Cycling) - 4 points
4/ Perrig Quémeneur (Team Europcar) - 3 points
5/ Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) - 2 points

Young riders classification

Since the young riders took the lead in this 72nd edition of Paris-Nice, the young riders classification looks pretty similar to the general classification, led by John Degenkolb as well:

1/ John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) - 13h14'01"
2/ Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ.fr) - +0'08"
3/ Moreno Hofland (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) - +0'12"
4/ Bryan Coquard (Team Europcar) - +0'22"
5/ Luca Wackermann (Lampre-Merida)

The 4th stage will start in Nevers tomorrow, for 201.5 kilometers towards Belleville. If you'd like to know all details of this stage, you can check out the race route on Google Maps.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice 2014 | Paris-Nice

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