Mark Cavendish has matched Bernard Hinault with 28 stage victories in the history of the Tour de France.
Image and Article from Le Tour de France website (http://www.letour.com/)
The stage from Granville to Angers was long and slow with a 215 kilometre long breakaway by Armindo Fonseca who was joined by Thomas Voeckler for the last two hours of racing before Mark Cavendish outsprinted André Greipel by a very small margin. Peter Sagan retained the yellow jersey.
More about the route here: Stage 3 route of the Tour de France 2016
Fonseca 141km alone in the lead!
198 riders started Stage Three of the 103rd Tour de France at Granville. Armindo Fonseca (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) rode away from the gun. He got a maximum advantage of 11.05 at km 25, after which the Tinkoff team set a tempo at the head of the peloton but the Breton rider was still able to exit Normandy and enter his province alone in the lead. The peloton kept cruising on a slow motion. 100km before the finish in Angers, Fonseca was four minutes ahead of the peloton. Ten kilometers further, Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) became the second attacker of the day as Fonseca was six minutes ahead. The two were reunited at Gastines with 83km to go.
Fonseca and Voeckler caught 8km before the end
On the line of the intermediate sprint at Bouillé-Ménard (km 171), Fonseca and Voeckler were just 40 seconds ahead of the peloton. They carried on until the 8km to go mark. Several sprinters’ teams prepared the final rush. Mark Cavendish was positioned by his team-mates right behind André Greipel as he knew the German national champion was his main rival on such a slightly uphill terrain. As he claimed his second win out of three stages this year, the Brit riding for Africa’s Team matched Bernard Hinault with 28 stage victories in the history of the Tour de France.
An ecstatic Douglas Ryder (Team Manager for Dimension Data) victoriously screamed ‘I can’t believe it!’ when Cavendish was confirmed the winner of the third stage.
Cavendish said it was his plan to be behind Greipel and described the stage as ‘frantic’ but also’phenomenal’.
Stage Three Classifications:
This classification report is taken from Le Tour de France website
For more information on stage or overall classifications visit Le Tour de France website.
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