After another series of crashes in stage two, the third stage of the 2010 Tour de France is sure to be an exciting one. Marked by many experts to be the stage to watch in the first week the route from Wanze to Arenberg Porte-de Hainaut is scattered with seven different pockets of cobblestone, sure to make life difficult for the riders.
Starting from Wanze, a first for the town in the Meuse valley sitting between Liege and Namur, this stage stands as the third longest on this year’s tour stretching, 213 km to Porte-de-Hainaut. This will be the first stage to enter France and is sure to be a difficult one.
With seven different pockets of cobblestone totaling 13.2 km, the majority or which come in the last 30 km, cyclists should be prepared for crashes and blowouts. Outside of the cobblestones however, stage three should be a sprinters dream as the majority of the course is flat and includes very few inclines.
Several jerseys will be up for grabs during this stage, the green points jersey and white youth rider jersey will be contested as usual, while this stage may play a major role in the overall team classification. Winning the stage is expected to be difficult and very risky, forcing some of the contenders to the peloton and forcing others to keep further back. Because of the terrain their should not be a major change in the polka dot jersey standings for king of the mountain, however the yellow jersey is sure to be contested.
Armstrong and Contador may not have to worry as much about pushing at this stage as they sit fairly comfortably in fifth and seventh place, respectively. Armstrong may have the best chance of the contenders to make a dash for the front during stage three as he rode the Liege-Bastogne-Liege in preparation for the cobbles. Contador is less likely to make a move. Even though he spent time training on the stones he has not yet raced them.
The Schleck brothers of Team Saxo-Bank perhaps will be forced to make a stronger move to the front during this stage as Frank is in 59th and Andy is back in 85th. Team Garmin and American hopeful Christian Vande Velde took a hard fall in the second stage and was sent to hospital, if he is fit enough to start the third stage he will certainly have to make a run at the front, as he sits in 146th position. It is certain that stage three will cause many of the favorites to move out of their comforts zones in order to stay in contention or make up time on a field that has been in disarray since the prologue.
Current leader Sylvain Chavanel could open up his lead on the field, as prior to the tour some experts expected his team, Quick Step, to make a move for the front during this stage as many teams thought to be poised to win the team classification might sit back on this uncertain stage, allowing wild cards such as Quick Step to creep up and try and steal points.
The crashes in stage two and Quick Step’s current command of the overall team lead as well as their rider Chavanel’s lead in the overall standings could cause them to take a more cautious approach to the stage. In 2004 the Tour ran a similar course that covered a great deal of cobblestones which caused Iban Mayo the leader at the time to fall and lose the yellow jersey.
Chavanel and Quick Step will certainly be looking to avoid a similar slip up, especially since second place Fabian Cancellara is a strong cobblestone cyclist. This should set up for an exciting third Tour stage.
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