Stage 3

The 3rd stage of the TDF was meant to be a simple stage with a mass sprint at the end and although the field finished all together (mostly!) it was far from simple.
A group of riders lead by Alitalia's Vincenzo Jacomuzzi took part in an early breakaway that the Hunter Cycling lead peloton had more trouble catching than expected.
Many riders were then taken by surprise by the pace going into the last 3rd of the race that many of the expected front sprinters fell behind. But Loyer Racing Tigers and Restov Cycling lead the charge to catch the breakaway and the field was bunched up for the last 5km.
But the damage had already been done and when Andy Badger of Fosters lead the final charge there was only one all out sprinter there to beat him, Wilson Ricky of PCR, he was well placed enough to take a rather simple run to the line. Restov seem to be a team that like fast paced stages scoring a decent 2nd and 4th with Drecker and Radiski. Jakob Schmidt managed a top 3 for Appalachian after sprinting from quite far back whilst Andy Badger amazingly managed to hold on to 5th despite the fact he isn't even a sprinter.
The majority of the front runners finished with the pack and so no time was lost or gained. However Twining's Janne Nordman fell at the final corner and lost a few minutes, Pavel Gafurov of NSA dropped down to help a downed team mate and lost time and Fantomettes Yevegni Dus also fell at the last corner and within sight of the finish line had to pull out of the tour after fracturing his hip.
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS3Points_zps0061a628.pngVincenzo Jacomuzzi has been very aggresive over the early stages of the tour and takes a surprising lead in the points standings, taking the Jersey from stage 2 winner Fahrrad. He is tied on points with this stage winner Wilson Ricky.
All teams (bar the Red Bull Raiders) finished with the same time today so there is no change in the team standings.
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Sim's Wins!Daniel Sims has claimed victory on the 4th stage of the TDF after a stage long battle with Batteries Jeroen Braams. The pair were part of a 6 man break away just before the half way point of the hill stage, the other 4 riders were Stefano Firenze (APB) Jason Melbourne (NSA) Gimmi Maltacchi (Mabbazzana) and Ricardo Lupo (PCR). However the other 4 lost touch with the front 2 after failing to keep up.
Hunter Cycling team, trying to protect Chokin's lead of the tour, did a reasonable job of holding the peloton but ultimatly could not catch the breakaway and eventually had to send Chokin forward on his own. A number of riders clung on to the yellow jersey as a sort of rally point with a group of around 30 riders. Before the Minardi team found this too slow and launched an attack of their own with 4 riders with a few hangers on from other teams.
Though all this was not enough to catch Sims and Braams who came into the final 5km with a 2 minute lead. Initially it looked like Braams had the better of Sims but the Aussie found some late pace and blitzed passed over the last km to come home with a clear solo victory.
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS4_zps9af3a86e.png Behind the top 2, Rinaldo Ranozzi, Jacomuzzi and Francois Le bleu (Minardi, APB, Hitachi) had found some space at the front and came home to lock the top 5.
Minardi had a very decent stage with Tromsen and Viruleon finish 6th and 7th. It seems Minardi timed their attack well. Timur Chokin came home a respctable 10th place for Hunter Cycling, but this isn't enough to hold overall lead of the tour. 12th place for Fahrrad is an amazing result, as the German rider had a 3 quarters of a way into the stage!
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS4GC_zps4bace5fb.pngAs a result of the stage, Sims and Braams move to 1-2 in the standings. Chokin is down to 3rd place 37 seconds off the lead. Francois Le Bleu is the front French runner of Le tour, whilst there are 6 Italians in the top 18!
With 4th place on the stage, Jacomuzzi increases his lead in the points standings and now cleanly holds the jersey. Daniel Sims is leading all the other jerseys though, General Classification, Young Rider and Mountain. He will obviously wear the yellow leaders jersey, Braams will wear the mountain jersey and Ranozzi will wear the young riders jersey.
Last years tour winner Yevegni Yurkov isn't having the best of times so far and none of UBC's general classification threats placed very well.
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS4Teams_zps65e5c9d2.pngIt is Battery Energy that win the stage for the teams race, by 45 seconds from Minardi. However the Minardi team overall increase their lead at the front as Battery were some minutes behind. Between them are Hitachi, PCR, NSA and Twinings. Those teams seem to be quietly getting on with things as aside from Wilson Ricky winning stage 3 for PCR there has been little to shout about from any of these teams! Despite the strong performance from Sims and Fahrrad, the Fosters team had to sacrifice time bring the German back up to speed and as a result an exhausted Andy Badger failed to keep up today.
Let me know if you want a more detailed update for your team.