27th Tour Méditerranéen

France, February 9-13, 2000

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Stage 3 - February 10: Merindol - Cadenet, TTT, 35 km

Jalabert and ONCE take control

ONCE came to the Tour Méditerranée with three ITT World Champions, Jalabert, Olano and reigning U23 champ Guiterrez and by winning the TTT stage they put the yellow jersey on Laurent Jalabert's shoulders. This was Jaja's "rentrée" on French roads, where he hasn't raced since 1998 after ONCE withdrew from the Tour over a conflict between ONCE and the French federation following the Festina affair.

But the ITT experts of ONCE had a tough fight with Crédit Agricole, with Julich, Vaughters, O'Grady and Voigt on the team. The race has turned into a duel and the Spaniards in ONCE will probably work hard to keep the jersey on their French captain "for old times sake", while CA might be content with just winning the race with any of their riders and thus have more cards to play.

There is one more reason to take the team time trial stages in the early races so seriously - there will be one in the Tour this year.

Results

1. ONCE  			               43.26 (48.35 km/h)
2. Crédit Agricole 				0.03
3. Mapei-Quick Step				0.47
4. Fassa Bortolo 				0.52
5. AG2R-Prevoyance				0.57
6. Liquigas-Pata
7. Jean Delatour 				1.18
8. Rabobank 					1.19
9. La Francaise des Jeux             		1.35
10. Bonjour 					1.48

General Classification after Stage 3:

1. Laurent Jalabert (Fra) ONCE               5.36.33
2. Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Spa) ONCE
3. Abraham Olano (Spa) ONCE
4. Iñigo Cuesta (Spa) ONCE
5. Bobby Julich (Usa) Crédit Agricole           0.03
6. Stuart O'Grady (Aus)	Crédit Agricole
7. Jens Voigt (Ger) Crédit Agricole
8. Fabrice Gougot (Fra) Crédit Agricole
9. Antony Morin (Fra) Crédit Agricole
10. Jonathan Vaughters (USA) Crédit Agricole