Peter Sagan wins the third consecutive stage of the Amgen Tour of California 2012
Peter Sagan continued his overall dominance at the ongoing Amgen Tour of California.
The cyclist has now bagged the third consecutive stage of the race and restricted Heinrich Haussler for the second spot for the third time.
He was overwhelmed after the victory and briefed, "It was a surprise for me, I'm glad to win, and I have to say thank you for my team because they did very good work for me".
Sagan is clearly a favourite overall contender for the race but the cyclist has dismissed any talks of him taking the top podium spot after the final general classifications.
"This race is very hard for me because there are long climbs at the finish (on stage 6 and 7) and I don't do very good at the time trial”, he explained.
“Maybe I will try to hold the yellow jersey one more day, but after the time trial we will see, but I don't think so".
Sagan completed the 185.5 kilometre pursuit to Livermore in a fastest time of 4 hours, 50 minutes and 49 seconds and climbed the top podium spot.
Heinrich Haussler of Team Garmin-Barracuda finished at the second position for the third consecutive stage of the race while Tom Boonen of Team Omega Pharma-Quickstep is holding the third position.
Boonen came very close and was looking good for an overall victory during the third stage of the race but could not match the likes of lightning fast Sagan.
The Belgian had to settle for the third position and was happy with his improved performance at the American race.
He cited, "I think it was a nice day to take a little bit of our responsibility, I wanted to try and see how far I got,” he concluded.
Heinrich Haussler maintained his second overall spot after the stage 3 classifications with a total deficit of 12 seconds over Sagan.
Jeffry Louder of Team UnitedHealthcare is further 12 seconds behind at the third spot while Fred Rodriguez, Ben Jacques-Maynes and Marc De Maar holds the fourth, the fifth and the sixth positions respectively.
It will be interesting to see, if Haussler manages to restrict Peter during the 209.6 kilometre stage 4 of the race.
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