Cancellara upstages rivals for glory
The Team CSC rider was on the fringes of the leading pack heading into the final kilometre but found space during the sprint finish to power into the lead.
The Swiss, who won the Tour’s prologue in London, held off a fast finish from Team Milram’s German rider Erik Zabel and Italian Danilo Napolitano riding for Lampre-Fondital to keep the yellow jersey in a time of six hours, 36 minutes, 15 seconds. Cancellara has extended his lead in the general classification to 33 seconds over Andreas Kloeden.
The 26-year-old attributed his win to a piece of opportunism in the final few metres. “I just saw a gap at the end and decided to go for it as I saw the finish line,” Cancellara said.
“I just wanted to get to the finish line without crashing. I saw the cobblestones and a few riders left some gaps so I thought I’ll go and give it full-gas and see how it goes.”
Cancellara voiced his determination to maintain his lead after today’s stage four, a 193km trek between Villers-Cotterets and Joigny.
“It means so much to me to be able to take the yellow jersey into the next stage and I hope to be able to keep hold of it for a little time longer.”
The start of the race had seen Agritubel’s Nicolas Vogondy and Matthieu Ladagnous, of the FDJ team, launch their escape from the pack after just 6km.
It was a bold declaration of intent by the French duo, who stretched the lead to eight minutes by the 25km mark and had added a further five minutes 20km later.
In between, Vogondy collected six points for reaching the first intermediate sprint mark at 33km.
Ladagnous collected four for second and Mikel Astarloza — 11-and-a-half minutes behind — collected two for crossing in third.
By the 90km mark five minutes had come off the lead, leaving just seven minutes and 50 seconds separating the leading duo from the peloton, while the seconds continued to tumble as the pack picked up the pace towards the midway point.
The duo’s lead was sufficient, however, for Ladagnous to collect six points at the 104km sprint gate and Vogondy to take four, with Romain Feillu, who launched a late sprint around the outside of the peloton to claim third, nine minutes behind.
But then things changed at the front. Cedric Vasseur and Anthony Charteau charged to the head of the peloton after 115km and the increased pace saw the lead slashed to four minutes. With 68km to go, Cofidis’s Stephane Auge broke alongside Liquigas’s Frederik Willems and 16km later they were level.
Willems and Auge were joined by Vogondy and Ladagnous with 15km to go and the four riders stayed ahead with less than 5km remaining.
The winner seemed certain to come from this quartet before Cancellara’s surge in the final 500m. Sprinters Zabel and Napolitano arrived too late as the Swiss rider edged home.
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