Chavanel!!

Third stage of P-N was more exciting than the second one.What happened? At the beginning of the stage there was a break formed by Stéphane Augé (Cofidis), Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas),Jürgen Roelandts (Silence-Lotto), Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux) and Tom Veelers (Skil-Shimano).The weather was rainy and very windy so,with 50 kilometres to go,the whole Rabobank team made a great attack that broke the peloton in different parts.In the first group there were about 20 men,while Contador and FRANK remained in the second one :(
The riders of the breakaway were caught by the first little group,that arrived at the finish line with a minute of advantadge on the other riders.In the first group there were Garate,Roelandrs,Seeldrayers Chavanel,Auge,Flecha, Langeveld and others.Langeveld attacked in the last kms of the stage,but the stage was finally won by Sylvain Chavanel,that also got the yellow jersey.In fact Alberto Contador arrived in the second group (together with Frank).
"Against three Rabobank riders [Flecha, Langeveld and Garate],it wasn't an easy task,"Chavanel said."In a small group,I'm quite fast but I couldn't win by myself. Kevin [Seeldrayers] did a fantastic job.He brought me back to Flecha's colleague [Langeveld, who had attacked in the last kilometre, ed.].Then it was another Flecha-Chavanel duel."

Here's the stage classification:
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 4.33.12 (39.09 km/h)
2 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Rabobank
3 Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Rabobank
4 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Cofidis
5 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step
6 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Rabobank
7 Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) Silence-Lotto
8 Marcus Burghardt (Ger) Team Columbia - Highroad 0.40
9 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam 1.09
10 Sébastien Turgot (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom
11 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Lampre - NGC
16 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Silence-Lotto
18 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - Highroad
23 Carlos Barredo (Spa) Quick Step
29 Antonio Colom (Spa) Team Katusha
30 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
31 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana
33 Jens Voigt (Ger) (Team Saxo Bank)
34 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
35 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha
38 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team Saxo Bank
40 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream
45 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank 2.50
47 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale
50 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) Team Saxo Bank
51 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Team Milram
52 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas
53 Markus Fothen (Ger) Team Milram
71 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank
76 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
82 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence-Lotto
108 Chris Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank 10.08 :( :( :(
110 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto
111 Gustav Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank
112 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - Highroad
114 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
115 Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis
116 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
118 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Liquigas
121 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad 11.34
122 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team Columbia - Highroad
125 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
127 Jurgen Van De Walle (Bel) Quick Step
152 Matthew Lloyd (Aus) Silence-Lotto 17.02

Here's the GC:
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 9.29.24
2 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Rabobank 0.33
3 Juan Antonio Flecha (Spa) Rabobank 0.36
4 Kevin Seeldrayers (Bel) Quick Step 0.37
5 Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) Silence-Lotto 0.40
6 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana 1.03
7 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 1.12
8 Stéphane Auge (Fra) Cofidis 1.14
9 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 1.17
10 Antonio Colom (Spa) Team Katusha 1.22
14 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank 1.30
19 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 1.39
25 Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team Saxo Bank 1.48
26 Mirco Lorenzetto (Ita) Lampre - NGC 1.51
43 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Team Milram 3.14
44 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank 3.15
45 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Astana
46 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 3.18
66 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence-Lotto 3.34
72 Nicki Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank
76 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) Team Saxo Bank 3.42
82 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 3.59
94 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence-Lotto 10.33
99 Gustav Larsson (Swe) Team Saxo Bank 10.51
100 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 101
105 Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Rabobank 10.57
106 Chris Sørensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank 10.58
118 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team Columbia - Highroad 11.57
120 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad 12.03
125 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 12.15
149 Matthew Lloyd (Aus) Silence-Lotto 18.35

(Photo by TDW).