The combination of a few catagory 3 & 4 climbs and a couple of crashes, served to string out the field today in the Tour de France, and the Yellow Jersey changed hands for the third time. Yesterday, the Peleton swallowed up German rider Mattias Kessler only 50 yards from the finish line. Today, Kessler took off a couple of kilometers from the finish line and was able to hold on for the win.
In the overall standings, Tom Boonen, a Belgian rider, is now wearing the coveted Yellow Jersey. This is probably fitting since the tour goes through Belgium tomorrow. America's Discovery Team is also still doing very well. It has two riders in the top five of the overall standings. Here are the top 10 riders in the overall standings after stage 3, along with the standings of some others:
1. Tom Boonen [Belgium]
2. Michael Rogers [Australia]..........1 second behind
3. George Hincapie [USA-Discovery]..........5 seconds behind
4. Thor Hushovd [Norway]..........7 seconds behind
5. Paolo Savoldelli [Italy-Discovery]..........15 seconds behind
6. Daniele Bennati [Italy]..........15 seconds behind
7. Floyd Landis [USA]..........16 seconds behind
8. Vladimir Karpets [Russia]..........17 seconds behind
9. Serhiy Honchar [Ukraine]..........17 seconds behind
10. Matthias Kessler [Germany]..........17 seconds behind
15. David Zabriskie [USA]..........23 seconds behind
19. Bobby Julich [USA]..........25 seconds behind
21. Yaroslav Popovych [Ukraine-Discovery]..........27 seconds behind
22. Egoi Martinez [Spain-Discovery]..........28 seconds behind
23. Christian Vandevelde [USA]..........28 seconds behind
24. Levi Leipheimer [USA]..........28 seconds behind
27. Jose Azevedo [Portugal-Discovery]..........31 seconds behind
Alejandro Valverde [Spain] and Freddie Rodriguez [USA] both broke their collarbones in seperate crashes today, and are out of the Tour. Both were strong riders who had a chance to win it all.
Tomorrow's ride is a long and pretty flat run from Holland, through Belgium, and back into France. It looks like a sprinter's race and is unlikely to change the standings much. But the first mountains are coming in a few days. That's where we'll see who the real contenders are.
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