Tour de Fwance - Stage 3 Results

Tour de Fwance - Official Web Site ^ | 4-Jul-2005 | staff

[RKV]

Half mile to the finish of stage 3. Will advise when results posted.

[RKV]

Tom Boonen has won his second stage in a row. The He surged to the front of the peloton in the final 100m and easily claimed victory ahead of a field of elite sprinters.

[Gunrunner2]

Is this good or bad for Lance?

[freeangel]

C'mon--Was the FWANCE thing on purpose? LOL

[Always Right]

Is this good or bad for Lance?

Lance just needs to stay close, his strenth is in the mountains.

[RKV]

Oui, la "Fwance" c'etait mon idee.

[RKV]

Need more data. Not posted yet. Here is the route for today. I used to go to school in Angers, right next door to this route. It is gorgeous countryside, vineyards and chateau.

[Gunrunner2]

Thanks. . .as you can tell I don't know anything about that sport but do know Lance is a heck of an athlete.

[corbe]

Lance is in a 'Good' position. The strategery is to stay as close to the front of the pack as possible to avoid the spills and mishaps that involve the middle of the pack~mainly. As stated earlier Lance usually SHINES in the Mountains and that is mainly in stages 9~12. Go LANCE!

[RKV]

American David Zabriskie retains the overall lead (maillot jaune). Results for individuals today follow...

The top 10 in the stage is: 1. Tom Boonen (QST) 2. Peter Wrolich (GST) 3. Robbie McEwen (DVL) 4. Stuart O’Grady (COF) 5. Bernhard Eisel (FDJ) 6. Allan Davis (LWT) 7. Robert Forster (GST) 8. Magnus Backstedt (LIQ) 9. Anthony Geslin (BTL) 10. Thor Hushovd (C.A).

[WinOne4TheGipper]

I've had this feeling that Lance wouldn't be able to win this time, so he'll probably win. I've had the exact same feeling four or five years running...:)

[RKV]

Same here.

[RKV]

FLASH - Race Jury Punishes Australian Robbie McEwen

The rider who crossed the line in third place in stage three has been relegated by the race jury. Robbie McEwen hindered the line of Stuart O’Grady in the final meters of the stage. The new top 10 is: 1. 1. Tom Boonen (QST) 2. Peter Wrolich (GST) 3. Stuart O’Grady (COF) 4. Bernhard Eisel (FDJ) 5. Allan Davis (LWT) 6. Robert Forster (GST) 7. Magnus Backstedt (LIQ) 8. Anthony Geslin (BTL) 9. Thor Hushovd (C.A) 10. Angelo Furlan (DOM) McEwen was relegated to 186th place - the last place of the main peloton.

[RKV]

Overall Standings at end of Stage 3
1 029 ZABRISKIE David CSC USA 2 001 ARMSTRONG Lance DSC USA 00' 02" 3 102 BODROGI Laszlo C.A HUN 00' 47" 4 019 VINOKOUROV Alexandre TMO KAZ 00' 53" 5 004 HINCAPIE George DSC USA 00' 57" 6 066 LANDIS Floyd PHO USA 01' 02" 7 071 CANCELLARA Fabian FAS SUI 01' 02" 8 028 VOIGT Jens CSC GER 01' 04" 9 037 KARPETS Vladimir IBA RUS 01' 05" 10 095 GONZALEZ GALDEANO Igor LSW ESP 01' 06" 11 023 JULICH Bobby CSC USA 01' 07" 12 011 ULLRICH Jan TMO GER 01' 08"

[hermgem]

Got to read Rick Morrissey in the Sports section, page one, of Sunday's Chicago Tribune.
He writes: What if the accusations of performance enhancing drug use (of Armstrong) are true?
What if we are paying homage to a cheat?
The Tribune obviously has expanded their "debase America rhetoric" into the sports section.
It's obviously not sufficient to Tribune's ongoing defenses of this honorable local Senator Durbin linking the U.S. Army along with Americans to torturers such as Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot.
Europeans are quite caught up in being the best.
Anything, including such informations as Morrissey's tribe will re affirm their America is the lowland impressions.

[rhema]

That leaning by McEwen at the end was bizarre. I saw only the last 20 minutes of today's stage.

My sentimental favorite to have a good Tour 2005 is Joseba Beloki. After doing so well in the 2000-02 Tours, it's taken him a long time to get back since his wipeout in the 2003 Tour:

Beloki: "What I want out of this Tour is to feel good again" [scroll down]

One of the wildcards in this year's Tour is Joseba Beloki, 2nd in the 2002 Tour and 3rd in 2000 and 2001 before the crash (and the writer's guild says I have to call it "horrific") that took him out of the 2003 Tour on Stage 9.

Beloki did exactly nothing during 2004. He rode for Brioches La Boulangère, and just didn't seem to fit. He also complained that team doctors wouldn't let him take his asthma medication, Pulmicort, even though Beloki said he had used it since childhood.

This year, he's reunited with Manolo Saiz, the director he raced for at ONCE, at Liberty Seguros, and says he expects to ride in support of Roberto Heras:

"I have an important role to play. I think that Heras is very strong on the mountains, and I will try to be as close to him as possible," Beloki said. "If possible, I'll try to create a surprise and get as far ahead as possible, which would be good for everyone."

[Gunrunner2]

Thanks.

[RichardW]

Good, they could have bounced him right out of the Tour. That was outrageous in the extreme. He won't last the tour anyway. He's just a sprinter and will probably not make it over the mountain passes.