Paris - Nice Stage 3

Wow, did I ever get it wrong yesterday. After the peleton managed to chase down the early break another split occurred, and this time Alberto Contador was on the wrong side of it. It eventually came down to a 7-man dash for the line, and Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step took the win in a group that included 3 Rabobank riders. The gap back to Contador's group was 1:09, dropping him back to 6th overall, with Sylvain Chavanel taking over the yellow jersey.

Another day of rolling hills in Stage 4, with 6 Cat-3 climbs, so expect more of the same, and another leaderboard shuffle if Quick Step don't control the race.

General classification after stage 3

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

Thanks for reading.