CyclingRevealed's First Impressions '05

Stage 3 - La Châtaigneraie to Tours, 212.5 km

Escape Artists

Optimism springs eternal in most bike racers and in a race such as the Tour everyone dreams of grabbing glory, even if only momentarily. Most days we see breaks escape and with many it is clear that the effort is a forlorn cause. On the flat stages the sprinters teams have created a science out of bringing back breaks before the final dash to the line. Sometimes the breaks are very long and race fans will them on to hold off the pack until the very end. We saw this in stage 2 yesterday and again today three brave souls were away for almost the entire day.

Erik Dekker [ Image ©: CyclingRevealed.com ]

Erik Dekker (Rabobank), Rubens Bertogliati (Saunier Duval) and Nichols Portal (Ag2r) led the race for 177kms. Dekker has won many classics as well as four Tour stages. A power rider with amazing resilience, he is one to never give in. Bertogliati can probably claim to have recorded the most audacious Tour stage win when a couple of years ago on Stage 1 of the Tour he jumped the field with 1km to go and held them off to the line. That exploit earned him very brief custody of the Yellow Jersey. Portal is a solid rider and his objective was to get his sponsors jersey in front of the cameras.

On the run in to Tours Bertogliati was the first to throw the towel in. Portal followed shortly afterwards as he felt the collective breath of the bunch at his back. Dekker refused to concede with about 180 riders on his heels as they headed for the famous Avenue de Grammont at 55kph. Over the years Dekker has been in similar situations and the picture of him, head down, flat out, trying to outgun the sprinters trains was marvelous. And with Dekker you never count him out. Unfortunately with just 3kms to go he was swamped by the masses and at that precise moment Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo) burst from the front. His freedom was short lived and the predicted bunch sprint took place. Once again Tom Boonen dominated to take the win. In the heat of battle to Tom's right, Stuart O'Grady (Credit Agricole) and Robbie McEwen (Davitamon.Lotto) were locked in mortal combat. McEwen head-butted O'Grady in an attempt to make room to get up to Boonen and was later disqualified to last place for his aggression.

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