Stage 3 of the Tour de France has been won by Garmin’s Tyler Farrar, the first American to win a stage of the Tour de France on July 4, American Independence Day.
For Britain’s Mark Cavendish, the sprint did not go well, spoilt perhaps by Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil-DCM) who attacked with two kilometres to go and was chased by one of Cav’s leadout men, Matt Goss. Geraint Thomas also appeared to have go at getting to the Vacansoleil rider but was unable to hold off a hard charging yellow jersey, Thor Hushovd who led out his American teammate for the stage victory with Cavendish coming back from an impossible position to finish 5th.
 The yellow jersey Thor Hushovd managed to carry his speed to sixth in the bunch kick and holds on to the leader’s jersey from Britain’s David Millar on the same time. Geraint Thomas, who finished 15th in the sprint, keeps the White jersey while Bradley Wiggins in 10th place overall, gives Britain, three riders in the top 10.
Post stage, Mark Cavendish said on Twitter ” NOT HAPPY! We came up a bit short so I tried to let some riders in @ 2km. Last corner tangled with Rojas & Feillu. Lost 30m. Salvaged 5th.”
Ben Swift meanwhile, said on his Twitter “Well that was just a little bit crazy. Great work by G and Eddie today. Shame we lost each other in the madness. Try again a different day.”
Geraint Thomas meanwhile explained on the Team Sky website he had looked to lead out Boasson Hagen and Ben Swift in the closing stages but it didn’t pay off on this occasion. “It was just carnage out there – a typical Tour sprint in the first few days. It was quite steady early on so there were a lot of fresh guys. There was a lot of fighting, elbows and stuff.”
“I thought Edvald was on my wheel but he got knocked off by somebody. I wasn’t attacking or anything like that. I’m a bit more clever than that – I knew it wouldn’t work! Swifty was on Edvald’s wheel too and if they’d both managed to get through we would have been in a perfect situation but unfortunately they got knocked off line.”
Second in the Tour on equal time with yellow jersey wearer Hushovd, David Millar, is perhaps looking to take the yellow off his teammates shoulders on the next stage, saying on his team’s website, “Maybe there’s a chance for me to take yellow. It’s a good little climb. A rider like (Philippe) Gilbert is the favorite, but we have a bit of a gap on him from the team time trial, so it might be enough. It’s going to be a real dogfight. It’s going to be close.â€
Stage-by-Stage
Stage 1 | Stage 2 |
Result
1 Tyler Farrar (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 4:40:21Â Â
2 Romain Feillu (Fra) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team   Â
3 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team   Â
4 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale   Â
5 Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Highroad   Â
6 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo   Â
7 Julian Dean (NZl) Team Garmin-Cervelo   Â
8 Borut Bozic (Slo) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team   Â
9 André Greipel (Ger) Omega Pharma-Lotto   Â
10 Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Saur – Sojasun
15. Geraint Thomas, Team Sky
44. Bradley Wiggins, Team Sky,
66. ben Swift, Team Sky
126. David Millar, Garmin Cervelo
Overall
1. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo    9h 46′ 46″ Â
2. David Millar Team Garmin-Cervelo    st
3. Cadel Evans, BMC  @ 01″
4. Geraint Thomas, Sky @ 04″
5. Linus Gerdemann Leopard-Trek @04″
6.Edvald Boasson Hagen, Sky @ 04″
7. Frank Schleck Leopard-Trek @ 04″
8. Andy Schleck Leopard-Trek@04″
9. Jakob Fuglsang   Leopard-Trek@04″
10. Bradley Wiggins Sky @ 04″
17. Mark Cavendish HTC – Highroad @ 05″
23. Ben Swift Sky @ 11″
