Tour Down Under stage 3

Euskaltel enjoyed mixed fortunes in today's third Tour Down Under stage from Unley to Victor Harbour. After the day's four-man break had been caught by a relentless peloton some 40 kilometres out, the seemingly in-form Romain Sicard gave it a go on the last climb with less than five clicks left. The Frenchman wasn't able to open up a threatening gap and was quickly reeled back in, but it was nonetheless a statement of intent from the 24-year-old. On the proceeding descent down to the line, main GC hope Gorka Izagirre suffered the misfortune of a double puncture and with it all ambitions of a top stage placing. Izagirre eventually came home a big 1:54 in arrears down in 128th place, but was rightly awarded the same time as the bunch once the race commissaires figured out what had happened. As a consequence he's still only 20 seconds down on overall leader Greipel, but dropped from 11th to 47th. Victor Cabedo once again struggled to keep up with the pace, ceding 1:02 by stage's end, but the rest of the riders all finished up comfortably mid-pack.

Stage results:

• 48, Rubén Pérez, 0:00
• 56, Romain Sicard, s.t.
• 89, Ricardo García, s.t.
• 98, Pablo Urtasun, s.t.
• 114, Adrián Sáez, s.t.
• 125, Victor Cabedo, 1:02
• 128, Gorka Izagirre, 1:54 (later corrected to 's.t.')

Overall:

• 31, Rubén Pérez, 0:20
• 36, Romain Sicard, s.t.
• 47, Gorka Izagirre, s.t.
• 85, Adrián Sáez, 4:01
• 103, Ricardo García, 12:45
• 122, Pablo Urtasun, 15:35
• 129, Victor Cabedo, 16:37