Tour de France - STAGE 3, July 10, Warregem-Compeigne

Incredible finish. The yellow jersey taking a flat non TT stage, now that doesn't happen very often. Hats off to Cancellara.

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races07/tdf07/tdf07st03-100togo.jpg
He was very visible most of the way in the peloton. Guess he was just riding comfortably along waiting to make his move.

I guess cancelera has to have pretty good top speed to do so well in the prologue, but still surprising he could break away from a pack doing 55kph, never mind stay ahead of Zabel trying to get up to his wheel.

Its not all that surprising if you remember the way he rode everyone off his wheel at P-R last year. I'm not sure you can really call what he does a sprint though. Well timed, another 20m Boonen and gang would have had him.

that was one of the best finishes to a stage i've seen for ages... worth being ridiculously tired at work today for (it finished at about 2:30am or some stupid hour). shame about the first 200km. that was some of the most boring "racing" i've ever seen. ah well, it came good eventually.

cancellara must have titanium balls to even attempt a move like that, let alone to ride off the front of a fully firing peloton with the scent of blood... absolutely amazing. i am in awe.

really was a great finish. 230k break caught just before the line. Yellow Jersey taking a flyer within 1k, and inching out the sprinters at the line. Best first week flat stage finish in recent memory.

This was at least the 3rd time Fabian has made a move like this in a big race this season. Its nice to see one actually work out for him.

Auge should have just pulled to the finish, even if he ended up 4th. He would have still been the star of the stage. I think he was in the lead and stopped pedalling. He could have pedalled fast enough for someone to try and break ahead of him, and then tried to catch them. 2nd or 3rd would have still been awesome for him.

Again, it's a team sport. Individual placing, especially for non-stars like the guys in this break, means nothing. They're not out there to feel good about a 4th place in a tour stage; they're there to deliver the win. And if the best they can do is 4th out of the break, then they just wasted an entire stage for their team. The guy who pulls the break in and feels proud of his 4th is, well, not a team player and will probably be looking for a new contract next season. He'd be like a guy in a basketball game who never passes and always shoots, but walks away after his team loses thinking, hey, I just set a new personal record for points per game.

But who is Auge, for example, supposed to be working for?? The directors are putting guys in the break for a reason.

Any time a break succeeds it's something to be proud of, and it will benefit the team because the sponsors get lots of exposure. A 1 in 4 chance of winning the stage is most likely a better chance than Cofidis is going to get for the rest of the Tour.

Auge should have just pulled to the finish, even if he ended up 4th. He would have still been the star of the stage. I think he was in the lead and stopped pedalling. He could have pedalled fast enough for someone to try and break ahead of him, and then tried to catch them. 2nd or 3rd would have still been awesome for him.

Exactly. And close to yellow if he got lucky.

Exactly. And close to yellow if he got lucky.

Uh, 4 minutes lucky?

General classification

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC 8.36.13
[snip]
186 Stéphane Augé (Fra) Cofidis - Le Crédit par Téléphone 3.54
187 Cédric Hervé (Fra) Agritubel 4.01
188 Aleksandr Kuchynski (Blr) Liquigas 8.41

Incidentally, I was hoping Auge would work hard in the finish too, as a thank you to the other riders for not contesting the KOM placings. I think he just didn't have the legs. When Vogondy and Ladagnous started attacking, Auge didn't have much to respond. Ladagnous was clearly the strong man at that point. IIRC, he was the only one to try to catch Cancellara, and he held on for 11th even after they were caught.

really was a great finish. 230k break caught just before the line. Yellow Jersey taking a flyer within 1k, and inching out the sprinters at the line. Best first week flat stage finish in recent memory.He did exactly what a time trialer has to do to beat the wheelsuckers on a flat stage - jump early enough that they won't wheelsuck him, and get a big enough lead that they can't catch him in the last 200 meters.