Vodacom Rapport Toer - Cat. 2.4

South Africa, February 11-19, 2000

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Stage 3 - February 14: ITT: Mossel Bay, 30 km

Steinhauser strongest

Tobias Steinhauser (Ger, Gerolsteiner) showed that he is the strongest man in the field today, when he won the third stage of the Rapport Toer, increasing his lead on Alberto Elli of Telekom in the process. The German averaged close to 46 km/h in the 26 km time trial around Mossel Bay, finishing 1:09 in front of teammate, and last year's winner, Michael Rich. Elli managed third place, but was still 1:17 back on the flying German.

Notably, in sixth spot was World Champion Jan Ullrich (Ger, Telekom) who is showing some signs of early season form. South Africans James Perry and Nicholas White filled out the two intervening places in very strong performances.

Steinhauser was surprised at his win, but was very happy to have increased his lead especially as the last 13 km were all into a headwind. He said afterwards that "I kept pushing hard all the way. I’m now very optimistic for the rest of the tour."

Tomorrow's 154 km stage from George to Oudtshoorn sees a challenging climb at the 100 kilometer point - 20 kilometers long, and 700 meters of ascension.

Results

1 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Gerolsteiner		      	 34.59   
2 Michael Rich (Ger) Gerolsteiner		      	  1.09   
3 Alberto Elli (Ita) Telekom			      	  1.17   
4 James Perry (RSA) IBM-Lotus			      	  1.50   
5 Nicholas White (RSA) Team HSBC		      	  1.57   
6 Jan Ullrich (Ger) Telekom			      	  2.00   
7 Lars Michaelsen (Den)	Francaise des Jeux	      	  2.13   
8 Volker Ordowski (Ger) Gerolsteiner		      	  2.15   
9 Bert Grabsch (Ger) Cologne			      	  2.16   
10 Savatore Commeso (Ita) Saeco-Valli&Valli	      	  2.18   

General classification after stage 3:

1 Tobias Steinhauser (Ger) Gerolsteiner 	       8.47.17
2 Alberto Elli (Ita) Telekom            	      	  1.40
3 Salvatore Comesso (Ita) Saeco-Valli&Valli      	  2.50
4 Volker Ordowski (Ger) Team Gerolsteiner    	      	  3.47
5 Lars Michaelsen (Den) Francaise des Jeux                4.04
6 Nicholas White (RSA) HSBC             	      	  4.05
7 Kosie Loubser (RSA) IBM-Lotus         	      	  4.54
8 Rudolph Wentzel (RSA) Minolta         	      	  5.10
9 Christian Wegmann (Ger) Saeco-Valli&Valli  	      	  5.30
10 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Telekom           	      	  5.40