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89th Tour de France - Grand Tour
France, July 6-28, 2002
Main page Stage profile Start List Results
Stage 3 - Tuesday July 9: Metz - Reims, 174.5 km
Complete Live Report
Start time: 13:00 CEST
Estimated finish time: 17:03 CEST
13:03 CEST
Welcome to the cyclingnews.com coverage of stage three of the Tour, the day
the race finally sets foot in its native land. Today's stage runs westwards
through the départements of Moselle, Meuse and Marne to end up in the
Champagne capital, Reims. The stage is pretty flat, with just two fourth-cat
climbs - one after only 3 km of racing - so it will probably be another one
for the sprinters.
The weather is warm - around 26°C - overcast and humid; there is talk of rain
and possibly storms this afternoon but they have held off so far; there is a
gentle southerly wind which will be a crosswind from the riders' left for most
of the course.
13:30 CEST 16 km/158.5 km to go
Following the day's first "col" - the three points for the côte de Gravelotte
taken by Christophe Mengin, currently lying second in the GPM competition ahead
of Patrice Halgand and Andy Flickinger - two men have attacked - the irrepressible
Jacky Durand and his compatriot Franck Rénier. They are 1.10 up on a dawdling
peloton, which makes Rénier the race leader on the road.
We spoke to Mengin this morning "Are you upset about losing the polka dot jersey?
"Of course; today I'm arriving in my home region. I live in Nancy so we're finishing
not too far from my home. I would have liked to have had the jersey today but
all is not lost. I could take it back today. I know the hills well, so I'll
try to retake the jersey." The points he took on that first climb do in fact
make him maillot à pois virtuel now.
13:40 CEST 24.5 km/150 km to go
Rabobank's Karsten Kroon has set out in pursuit of the two leaders; he is a
minute behind them, and half a minute up on the peloton.
14:03 CEST 39 km/135.5 km to go
This stage - like many races in the north, covers a route that brings up some
of the less happy bits of the country's past; the riders have already passed
the battlefields of Gravelotte and Mars-le-Tour from the Franco-Prussian war
of 1870, and they are now heading for what is almost sacred ground to the French,
Verdun, the site of the bloodiest battle of the First World War (and of Laurent
Jalabert's stage win last year, as well as being the venue for the first bonus
sprint of the day which could put a German into the maillot jaune), and
then on through the Argonne where the American army saw action in 1918.
The two attackers have stretched out their lead to over six minutes from the
peloton, with Kroon losing ground a bit at 2.15.
14:25 CEST
Karsten Kroon has sat up and been caught by the peloton, which is being driven
without a great deal of enthusiasm by Crédit Agricole and Telekom while ahead
of him the lead of the two Frenchmen has now stretched out to over 9 minutes.
We spoke to that exponent par excellence of the échappée fleuve the all-day
breakaway, Jacky Durand (FDJeux.com), this morning. "There were plenty of people
who wanted to try and get the yellow jersey yesterday. The riders who attacked
had better reasons. Personally I didn't want to go with them because the first
stages were relatively difficult and perhaps a more effective break will come
on a flatter stage."
14:34 CEST 57.5 km/117 km to go
At Verdun Durand does not contest the bonus sprint and it is Rénier who takes
the money and the six bonus seconds; a good ten mintes behind them the action
is more intense as Erik Zabel seeks for the two seconds bonus that will put
him in yellow this evening if the race finishes together. Telekom do all the
work for the leadout, but Lampre's Jan Svorada comes round him in extremis to
protect his teammate's lead for the moment (with a bit of contact between German
champion Danilo Hondo, leading out Zabel, and the Lampre lead-out man); the
bunch eases up and the pattern of the race settles down again; last official
time check is a lead of 9.45.
Rénier looks a bit fresher than Durand, pedalling a lower gear more smoothly
on the little climbs on the straight, rolling roads west of Verdun.
14:53 CEST 68.5 km/106 km to go
The bunch have now slowed back to not much over clubrun tempo, and the two leaders
have stretched their advantage out to over eleven minutes. It is another 30
km or so to the feed at Clermont-en-Argonne, and then the day's second fourth-category
climb and the second bonus sprint follow 7 km and 14 km later respectively.
After that the rolling and wooded country opens out into the plains east of
Reims, and on the long, broad, straight, flat roads that make up the final 45
km the breakaway pair will need ever second they can get.
15:10 CEST 88.5 km/86 km to go
The sprinters' teams - Telekom for Zabel and Lotto for McEwen in particular
have now taken up the chase, and as they approach the feed Durand and Rénier's
lead has fallen back well below 10 minutes.
The threatened rain and crosswinds have not made an appearance yet, but if the
wind gets up on the more open later stages of the course, we could see echelons
forming, so the GC riders will need to keep their wits about them to avoid getting
trapped behind. There is also the spectre of the team time trial stage tomorrow;
we chatted to US Postal's Floyd Landis before the start about how he felt about
today: "Good, hanging on. It's going to be a warm one. Looks like it's going
to be hot and they said it's going to rain. I don't know what's going on. I
hope some team wants to take control but the further we go, the less likely
that becomes. Sooner or later, we're going to have to take responsibility but
hopefully not today because the Team Time Trial is tomorrow. The fresher we
can show up, the better." Was he expecting attacks from the start? "I'm counting
on it. It won't be me, but somebody's going to do it."
Last timecheck for the two leaders, with Thierry Marichal and Bobby Julich leading
the chase - 7.10
15:25 CEST 95.5 km/79 km to go
Rénier takes the day's second climb, still riding more fluidly than Durand who
seems a little laboured.
As the bunch take the climb 8 minutes behind, Christophe Mengin picks up the
point for third place; he will be in the spotty jersey tonight, three points
ahead of Stéphane Berges. The pressure on the climb is too much for Belgian
champion Tom Steels, who drifts off the back briefly.
As the bunch are climbing, up the road Durand takes the day's second bonus sprint
without a contest ahead of Rénier.
15:40 CEST 100.5 km/74 km to go
Telekom manage things better the second time round, and Erik Zabel takes the
two second bonus which brings him dead level on time (including the hundredths
of a second in the prologue time) with Rubens Bertogliatti. If Zabel does not
pick up any more bonuses at the third sprint (which is in another 25 km), Bertogliatti
will need to be in front of him at the finish to hold onto the yellow jersey.
Then again, McEwen and Freire are both in with a shout, and they still ahve
to catch Rénier and Durand, who still have a 7.00 lead.
15:53 CEST 109.5 km/65 km to go
The race passes another military memento, the monuments for the battle of Valmy
in the French Revolutionary wars. It is the Germans and Belgians of Telekom
and Lotto who lead the peloton, now lined out, through the winding streets of
the village; the lead of the two Frenchmen is now down to not much above 6 minutes.
16:06 CEST 124.5 km/50 km to go
The two leaders still have just about the canonical minute's lead per 10 km
to go (4.55 at 50 km), but this is really thankless terrain for this sort of
exercise, arrow-straight roads between wide open prairies of grain. With the
final bonus sprint approaching, the sprinters are moving up in the bunch; Freire,
McEwen and Zabel are all well up towards the business end of the peloton.
16:14 CEST 130 km/44.5 km to go
At Suippes, the leaders have an amiable little tussle for the last bonus sprint
along the lines of a clubrun sprint for a town sign; Durand takes it.
Telekom set up a train for the third place, but nobody else bothers contesting
it anyway. Erik Zabel is now 2 seconds ahead of Bertogliatti, 13 seconds ahead
of McEwen and 16 seconds ahead of Freire.
We spoke to Telekom's big man Rolf Aldag about their sprinting tactics this
morning: "It's my job to keep up the speed in the final two kilometres so nobody
can attack. The teamwork worked out pretty well yesterday but the end result
wasn't perfect. We'll still try." Did Fagnini pull off too early? "It's difficult
to say. Maybe Fagnini should have passed a little earlier to keep the speed
high and make it difficult for McEwen and Freire to start the sprint from behind.
If you're already riding at sprint tempo, and you have three riders in front
of you with 500 metres to go, then maybe that was the problem, because you are
not used to that."
16:22 CEST 136 km/38.5 km to go
The lead is now down to 3.30, and the situation does not look particularly promising
for the duo who have been away since kilometre 6. Mapei have sent Laszlo Bodrogi
up to join in the chase with the Telekom and Lotto riders who have been doing
the lion's share of the donkey work so far.
The curse of Crédit Agricole seems to struck again; Stuart O'Grady was being
pushed by his teammates, and has now gone back to talk to the doctor; he looks
to be in some discomfort.
16:34 CEST 144.5 km/30 km to go
The lead is still coming down, but not as rapidly as before; Tafi moves up to
add to the motive power department; behind the real workers ONCE and Euskaltel
are moving up, presumably to try to keep their riders out of trouble.
Now that the road is flat Tom Steels seems to be able to move up the bunch without
too much difficulty; the gap is now down to 2.24.
16:46 CEST 154.5 km/20 km to go
The gap is now down to 1.40; they are now riding down an almost 20 km long straight
avenue between wheatfields, almost entirely flat and wide open; the skies look
heavy but the sun has broken through - it looks as though they should manage
to finish in the dry.
16:52 CEST 159 km/15.5 km to go
Durand and Rénier decide to give it one last determined go and are just about
holding the gap at 1.35. Durand is now looking the more stylish of the two,
with his back spirit-level flat. O'Grady has returned to the bunch and is hanging
on in the rear echelons. Ludo Dierckxsens joins in with the chase, presumably
for Svorada trather han Bertogliati.
A second echelon has formed in the crosswind with a split of about 50 metres.
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16:59 CEST 164.5 km/10 km to go
The gap has come down to under one minute now. The two echelons almost merge
as the bunch takes a roundabout, but the last few metres are just too much.
The race turns west-north-west and the two echelons come back together; the
lead at the 10 km banner is just 29 seconds, and Erik Zabel is now maillot
jaune virtuel.
17:05 CEST 167.5 km/7 km to go
With Durand and Rénier in sight ahead, the bunch eases up to let them hang out
to dry for a couple of kilometres. The US Postal team moves up en bloc, keeping
Armstrong out of trouble.
17:07 CEST 169.5 km/5 km to go
As they come into the outskirts of the city of Reims the pair are finally caught;
Bertogliati moves to the front, taking a last chance to show his jersey off.
Telekom seem to want to leave the work to Lotto this time round.
17:10 CEST 172.5 km/2 km to go
Lotto with Verbrugghe leading and McEwen in 5th place lead the bunch through
the convoluted approach to the finish; Mattan tries a finisseur attack at 2
km but is caught.
17:12 CEST
Freire takes Zabel's wheel; this is going to be a bumpy one.
17:15 CEST
Thor Hushovd leads out from a long way out; Tom Steels gets himself boxed in,
Zabel tries to come off the wheel of McEwen who jumps up the left, but can't
quite close the gap behind the Australian who wins the stage by half a length.
Zabel will take the yellow jersey and hang on to the green as well, with McEwen
provisionally second in both competitions.
Result 1 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto-Adecco 4.13.37 2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Deutsche Telekom 3 Baden Cooke (Aus) FDJeux.com 4 Andrej Hauptman (Slo) Tacconi Sport 5 Fabio Baldato (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 6 Paolo Bossoni (Ita) Tacconi Sport 7 Jaan Kirsipuu (Est) Ag2R Prevoyance 8 François Simon (Fra) Bonjour 9 Jan Svorada (Cze) Lampre Daikin 10 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Credit Agricole 11 José Enrique Gutierrez (Spa) Kelme-Costa Blanca 12 Oscar Freire (Spa) Mapei-Quick Step 13 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Jean Delatour 14 Luciano Pagliarini (Bra) Lampre Daikin 15 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Rabobank Overall standings after stage 3 1 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Deutsche Telekom 13.31.35 2 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto-Adecco 0.08 3 Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Lampre Daikin 0.14 4 Laurent Jalabert (Fra) CSC-Tiscali 0.17 5 Lance Armstrong (USA) US Postal Service 6 Raimondas Rumsas (Ltu) Lampre Daikin 0.20 7 Santiago Botero (Col) Kelme-Costa Blanca 0.21 8 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis 0.22 9 Laurent Brochard (Fra) Jean Delatour 0.23 10 Oscar Freire (Spa) Mapei-Quick Step 0.25 Points 1 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Telekom 96 2 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Lotto - Adecco 91 3 Oscar Freire (Spa) Mapei-Quick Step 71 Mountains 1 Christophe Mengin (Fra) LFDJeux.com Young riders 1 Rubens Bertogliati (Swi) Lampre Daikin 13:31.49 2 David Millar (GBr) Cofidis 0.08 3 Baden Cooke (Aus) LFDJeux.com 0.15
Thanks for following the stage with cyclingnews.com - we'll be back at 14.15 CEST tomorrow for the team time trial stage from Epernay to Château-Thierry.
