Samu still in the mix after cobbles

Samu rode impressively over today's stage three's much-debated cobbled sections to remain in podium contention. Samu came in with a group containing the likes of Armstrong, Wiggins, Cavendish and Ciolek, to name but a few, 2:08 down on fellow GC candidates A Schleck and Cadel. Thus he lost a valuable couple of minutes to that duo, but he lost less than a minute to Contador and even gained time on Sastre, Basso, Gesink, Rogers and Leipheimer. That's not too bad! Naturally Samu was left totally isolated by his team-mates once they got onto the cobbles, and that was disappointing to see, but most importantly he avoided all the crashes and stayed in contention overall. Iván and Amets was not so lucky though; both hit the deck quite hard. "We'll see how they feel tomorrow", was Igor González de Galdeano's swift comment on the duo. "But overall it was a positive day for us", he continued. "We've come through one of the most dangerous and difficult stages without any big mishaps. Samu is unscathed after these first three stages, and the team is really up for the challenge and motivated". Samu himself was relatively pleased, but regretted the bad luck he suffered just when the going was about to get tough: "My bad luck really annoys me. Everything was perfect until Chavanel crashed. I had to dismount and start over again, and someone hit me from behind right afterwards. But I'm feeling good and remain optimistic facing the remaining stages". Samu's team-mates did OK I guess. Thumbs up to both Iñaki and Egoi who came in only 17 seconds down on Samu alongside the likes of Leipheimer and Basso, while Rubén ended up 6:28 in arrears, Gorka and Alán 9:49, Amets and Iván 12:24 and finally JJ finished second-to-last 17:03 down.