[Le Tour 2003]Stage 3 - Heading South

[Tour Reporter]

Stage 3 - Charleville-Mezieres - Saint Dizier - 167 km

A blistering pace for the first couple hours on this shortest road stage 
of the race - covering over 50 km in the first hour - has the race near 
the stage speed record set by Mario Cipollini.  The man who has 
benefitted most has been Jean-Patrick Nazon from Jean Delatour, who is 
now the yellow jersey on the roadway.

He snuck his nose out on the first sprint point to nail four seconds 
with a second place (Jan Kirsipuu of Ag2R taking first), and then 
gathered 6 seconds with a first place at the second sprint point at 
Ville-sur-Tourbe.  Lotto's Robbie McEwen has been just behind him both 
times, perhaps trying to maximize his chances of wearing yellow as well.

A bit of a trick to the finish, with the organizers sneaking in a little 
"S" bend at about 500 meters to go. But, in the meantime, they need to 
worry about reducing the more than two minute gap to Antony Geslin of 
Brioches La Boulangere - the third youngest rider in the race. The 
riders continue almost due south today, and the weather seems to be 
steadily improving and warming with full sun, little wind and high 
humidity all around. The smooth roads must be benefitting CSC's Tyler 
Hamilton, again in the race and staying in touch while other riders are 
finding themselves adrift at times under the relentless pressure at the 
front.

Joseba Beloki gets dragged by the team car for a bit, and the soigneur 
trims something on his now-bare foot.  It would be stunning to think 
that he forgot to trim his toenails. More likely is that he's developed 
a blister or needs a hotspot dealt with.

The time gap eases up toward 3 minutes.  That strikes a nerve in the 
group, and they stretch out the bunch a bit as they turn up the speed a 
bit under the pacemaking of the Jean Delatour squad.

Baden Cooken of FDJeux.com wears the white jersey of the best placed 
young rider today, after his victory yesterday which also edged him up a 
bit in the standings.

The peleton slows as they roll between a pinch point of 50 or so 
demonstrators, who chant and wave signs as they edge out into the 
roadway.  The squeeze gets the riders down to walking pace, as even 
those with fluent French have no real idea what is going on.

Team Saeco's Danilo Diluca fights to hold onto some errant wheels and a 
team car after being dropped for the third or fourth time today.  He's 
said to be fighting an infection, as well as the comfort problems 
inherent with some saddle-area cysts. This talented rider had been 
having a strong spring until he ws knocked a bit off his game by a 
broken collarbone.  A screw still hold his bones together as he 
continues gamely.

The bunch moves along at 3:18 in arrears, still driven by Jean Delatour 
riders.  They have just over 48 km to go, and the J-D team has visions 
of holding the yellow jersey on the back of Nazon. That would be quite a 
coup for them, as they were the last team chosen for this year's event. 
  They tweak the time gap down to about 2:48 as they roll through the trees.

Geslin rolls along over flat roads past cheering spectators.  He enters 
Mogneville and the last sprint point of the day - taking the maximum 
time bonus as the Ag2R and Fassa Bortolo riders ratchet up the effort in 
the group.  Jean-Patrick Nazon comes clear, helped by a trio of Jean 
Delatour teamates who provide an impenetrable sprint leadout.  Jan 
Kirsipuu flicks around trying to figure out which is the right wheel to 
follow until realizing he'd guessed wrong, and Nazon opens a gap on him 
and the other riders, gaining another 4 seconds time bonus.  The 
increase in speed brings the gap down to 1:05 by the time all is said 
and done in this French town.

With under 20 km to go, the time gap has dropped to around 40 seconds.

The team director loads up Geslin with water bottles just before being 
directed to pull over as the gap goes under 30 seconds. They know the 
catch is imminent, and are wise enough to know that the rest of the team 
will appreciate the liquids once they rejoin him.  Fassa Bortolo 
unceremoniously roll past him and continue to increase their pace, 
attempted to squash any other breaks with 15 km to go.

Yellow jersey wearing Bradley McGee edges up towards the head of events, 
perhaps with the idea of springing Baden Cooke once more.  If they can 
do so, they could simply pass the jersey to a teammate rather than lose 
it to another team.  Fassa Bortolo leads the bunch under the the 10 km 
to go banner, trading pulls with Credit Agricole and FDJeux.com riders. 
Neck-brace-wearing Jimmy Caspar is not among them, however, as he gets 
nicked off the back and concentrates on just getting to the line. He has 
company with CSC's Jakob Piil and the man who wears the sufferin-B 
jersey; Danilo Diluca.  Small groups begin to assemble as the screaming 
pace continues to drop riders.

Fassa Bortolo's Alessandro Petacchi got chopped off on the final rise of 
yesterday's course, coming across the line more than a minute back. 
Today he seems to have shaken that off, and is positioned strongly in 
the business end of the bunch. Paolo Bettini takes a turn at the front 
as they pass under the 4 km to go banner.  Everyone begins to dink 
around as they spread across the two lane roadway, which a huge amount 
of movement as no one wants to take up the pacemaking.  Vini Caldirola 
moves themselves up a bit, perhaps wantinig to place Fred Rodriguez, and 
Rabobank move up with them, perhaps ready to spring Oscar Freire.

Under the 1 km to go banner - no organization and wildly shifting 
riders. Vini-Caldirola have three riders near the front, and Fassa 
Bortolo and Lotto push into their slipstream.  Everyone gets safely 
around the "S" at 500 meters, and once they come out of it, the blood is 
on the water and the frenzy begins.

Zabel has positioned himself well, while Petacchi leans against Romans 
Vainsteins and others spread across the road, Baden Cooke begins to get 
squeezed out as McEwen tries to move up - there is a sudden crash behind 
them! - it looks like only one rider has gone down against the barriers.

Up front Petacchi gets disentangled and guns it for the line.  Oscar 
Freire puts on an amazing burst of speed to move up strongly, but runs 
out of roadway and must watch as Petacchi wins it, arms aloft!

Back down the course, the crashed rider sits backwards, stunned as help 
rushes up to him.  Others on the course still work to avoid his bicycle. 
  The crashed rider is Rene Haselbacher from the Gerolsteiner squad.

A replay of the crash from above shows that McEwen and Baden Cooke did a 
fine bit of bike riding to stay upright, as Haselbacher was actually 
closer to the center of the roadway than either of them.  He was even 
with thesm and made what seems to have been an ill-advised move to his 
right, got squeezed out and had to push up against McEwen to his left. 
McEwen was already pushing against Cooke, whose left pedal was already 
nicking the curb. Cooke didn't move an inch, and the pressure 
ricchocheted back to Haselbacher, who found himself briefly airborne and 
then smashing against the curb and metal barriers.  After a few minutes 
surrounded by paramedics, he regains a bicycle and rolls over the line. 
  The cameras thankfully focus upon his face, as the quick shots of the 
crash show his shorts vaporized by the pavement.

Stage 3 - Results
1 - Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - 6:33:00
2 - Romans Vainsteins - Vini Caldirolo
3 - Oscar Freire - Rabobank
4 - Erik Zabel - Telekom
5 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto-Domo
6 - Luca Paolini - Quick Step
7 - Olaf Pollock - Gerolsteiner
8 - Angelo Furlan - Alessio
9 - Salvatore Commesso - Saeco -
10 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole

Overall -
Mailiot Juane - Jean-Patrick Nazon - Jean Delatour - 12:59:29
First frenchman to wear the yellow since 2001

Tomorrow's Stage - Team Time Trial
USPS has the lead in the team standings, due to their strong finishes in 
the prologue, which should let them know all the other's time splits. 
Historically, ONCE has had the strongest showing in this event, but it 
seems clear that this stage has been one of the focus points for this 
year's Tour effort for USPostal. Team Bianchi is second overall, and it 
will be interesting to see how they fare in this team effort.




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