Mur de Huy held its promise and laid the stage for a flat-out battle between a diminished peloton. Alberto Contador finished 12th on the stage and moves to 8th overall, while Peter Sagan could pull on the white jersey atop the dreaded climb. Tinkoff-Saxo now directs its attention towards the cobbles of Northern France.
Alberto Contador finished 12th on stage 3 of Tour de France, 18 seconds off stage winner Joaquim Rodriguez, while Chris Froome took over the race lead. Following the stage finish, the team leader tells that he lacked a bit of energy on the final climb.
“We saw some time differences today. I might have lacked a bit of sugar in the finale but I’ve always said that we will see bigger time differences in the mountains. Froome was very strong. He nearly won the stage today. But there are still many days of racing. You must stay positive. The yellow jersey gives you confidence, you tell yourself you’re well but it also creates pressure and responsibilities. Still I would love to hold it”, says Alberto Contador, who adds:
“Tomorrow on the cobbles, it will be a matter of survival. It’s an incredible Tour with a lot of stress, tensions and nerves everyday. Every year the stress is stronger and you leave a lot of energy. We must be very careful, anything can happen”.
After the 159.5km stage 3 to Mur du Huy, Peter Sagan was able to pull on the white jersey as the leader of the young rider classification.
“Going into the Mur de Huy, I tried to stay right behind Alberto Contador to help him in case he’d need something but the rhythm was too high for me uphill. I lead the best young rider competition and I’m not far down in the green jersey but I’ll see day by day if it’ll be appropriate to look for points or not. My priority is to assist Alberto and we have a big job to do tomorrow on the paves”, comments Peter Sagan.
Tinkoff-Saxo Head Sports Director Steven de Jongh notes that he was pleased to see the team avoiding the serious crashes that neutralized the race just before the race entered its finale.
“Besides Sagan taking the white jersey, I think the most positive on today’s stage is the important fact that non of our riders were involved in the two big and serious crashes. A lot of guys were knocked down and the race was practically running out of doctors. We support the decision to neutralize the race temporarily – it was a wise decision in a hectic moment”.
“I’m pleased with the team effort today and I think that everybody did exactly what they had to do to support Alberto. I think that their effort today can be seen in the fact that non of our riders were involved in the crash, as we spend energy on staying at the front throughout the stage”, tells Steven de Jongh, who notes that tomorrow’s stage on the cobbles will be another vital day:
“As for the stage finale on Mur du Huy, I think Alberto suffered on the last hundred meters. It’s not his type of climb and we know that Alberto is stronger on longer climbs. We still have most of the Tour ahead of us and we now turn our attention towards tomorrow and the cobbles. It’s pretty obvious that it will be a very tricky day”.
Stage 3 Results:
1. RODRíGUEZ Joaquim Team Katusha 03:26:54
2. FROOME Christopher Team Sky –
3. VUILLERMOZ Alexis AG2R La Mondiale 0:04
4. MARTIN Daniel Team Cannondale – Garmin 0:05
5. GALLOPIN Tony Lotto Soudal 0:08
6. VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC Racing Team 0:11
7. NIBALI Vincenzo Astana Pro Team –
8. YATES Simon Orica GreenEDGE –
9. QUINTANA Nairo Movistar Team –
10. MOLLEMA Bauke Trek Factory Racing – —
12. CONTADOR Alberto Tinkoff – Saxo 0:18
27. SAGAN Peter Tinkoff – Saxo 0:40
General Classification
1. FROOME Christopher Team Sky 07:11:37
2. MARTIN Tony Etixx – Quick Step 0:01
3. VAN GARDEREN Tejay BMC Racing Team 0:13
4. GALLOPIN Tony Lotto Soudal 0:26
5. VAN AVERMAET Greg BMC Racing Team 0:28
6. SAGAN Peter Tinkoff – Saxo 0:31
7. URAN Rigoberto Etixx – Quick Step 0:34
8. CONTADOR Alberto Tinkoff – Saxo 0:36
9. THOMAS Geraint Team Sky 1:03
10. STYBAR Zdeněk Etixx – Quick Step 1:04 —
