France celebrated a double success on the third stage of the Tour de France, while race favorites Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans kept their strength for yesterday’s crucial time trial.
Samuel Dumoulin of France won a closely contested sprint finish, and countryman Romain Feillu gave success-starved French fans further cheer when he claimed the yellow jersey by finishing third on Monday.
French stage wins and yellow jerseys have been a rarity in Tours since Bernard Hinault won the last of his five Tours in 1985.
PHOTO: AP
“We proved that we know how to train, we are not worse than the others,” Dumoulin said. “French riders deserve a win on the Tour. I hope it will help improve the image of cycling in France.”
Dumoulin and Feillu were part of a four-man breakaway that led for most of the windy, rainy 208km trek from Saint-Malo to Nantes.
Evans, who finished 39th, and Valverde, back in 68th, finished nearly two minutes back, safely among the pack.
Valverde, the race leader since winning Saturday’s opening stage, lost the yellow jersey by dropping from first to fourth, but “it doesn’t change a lot” for the Caisse d’Epargne team.
Yesterday’s 29.5km clock race, beginning and ending in Cholet, will start in reverse order from the overall standings. This means Valverde rides fourth-from-last and gives him the chance to see how fast Evans goes.
Evans, sitting one second behind Valverde and ninth in the overall, starts about 10 minutes before Valverde.
“The aim for me was to make sure I started behind all the favorites,” Valverde said. “So that I will have an idea of their times.”
Yesterday’s fourth stage would give the first real indication as to which riders are looking strong, and could see Evans and Valverde open up significant time gaps on others — or each other.
They had a close tussle in last month’s Dauphine Libere race, where Valverde won the time trial and the race — beating Evans into second place by 39 seconds.
Other Tour contenders like Russia’s Denis Menchov, and Spain’s Carlos Sastre, also need a strong time trial.
Sastre, a mountain specialist, is six seconds behind Evans and seven seconds behind Valverde.
Fourth overall last year and third in 2006, Sastre is not particularly fast — so if he were to lose too much time yesterday he may struggle to make that time up later on when the Tour hits the Pyrenees and Alps.
“I know Carlos is not really looking forward to it,” Sastre’s teammate Stuart O’Grady said, adding that Sastre must limit his losses to a “minute and a half.”
Sastre’s team director, 1996 Tour winner Bjarne Riis, expects Sastre to feel the pressure on a fast course.
“I think there will be some gaps, of course,” Riis said.
Other riders could also take the yellow jersey from Feillu.
Fabian Cancellara, the world champion, is 1:52 behind, and veteran David Millar is 1:46 back.
Because of the relatively short distance, Cancellara is not the overwhelming favorite he normally would be, so Millar has a chance for a top-five finish — or better.
“It’s definitely going to be a fast one,” said Matt White, a former US Postal Service rider who is now Millar’s sporting director on the Garmin Chipotle team. “It’s not so technical, as there’s rolling hills, but it’s really fast.”
Millar, who came back to the Tour last year after serving a two-year ban for admitting to doping, has not worn the yellow jersey since winning the 2000 prologue.
“Millar is going to have to have a very, very good day,” White said. “Anyone is these days to beat Cancellara. He is the undisputed best time trialer in the world, but he’s beatable.”
Cancellara wore yellow at last year’s Tour after winning the prologue in London and the third stage.
His Team CSC teammate, German rider Jens Voigt, feels Cancellara is well poised for more success.
“He has got to make up two minutes,” Voigt said. “But the way he is going I think he is able to do that.”
Dumoulin, meanwhile, won his first ever Tour stage four years after exiting the race when crashing into a dog.
“I have waited for a win like that for so long,” said Dumoulin, who rides for the French-owned Cofidis team and won in 5 hours, 5 minutes, 27 seconds.
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