García crashes twice in Dauphiné

As if Euskaltel hadn't already gotten off to a bad enough start in the Dauphiné, Ricardo García crashed twice in today's third stage. Luckily, he's not reported to have sustained any serious injuries.

The first tumble came about some 80 kilometres from the line of the third stage between Givors and La Clayette, but the first-year Euskaltel rider was quickly back on his back and riding again. The second was worse though, as he got locked out in the sprint for the stage and hit the deck hard inside the last 200 metres. According to the team's website, he's got scratches pretty much everywhere and his left wrist in particular is troubling him, but he's anticipated to be on the start line tomorrow.

On a more positive note, Samuel Sánchez seemed to be more at ease than in the days before as he crossed the line safely mid-pack. The Olympic champ is intent on seeing the race through, telling www.lne.es that he can't drop out of the race if he is to race the Tour de France, but wisely won't go full gas in tomorrow's 53km ITT to Bourg-en-Bresse.

"I'll take it easy", he said, adding: "but I won't risk finishing outside the time limit. As for the test I wanted to do in the mountains, I'll save that for the Tour. My overriding goal now is to recover from this setback."

While the passing of the stages will certainly help heal Samu's wounds, don't expect any fireworks this weekend; he says it "sometimes hurts a lot" and that at times "I can hardly breath". There's still more than three weeks to go before the big race gets started, though, so normally there should be time for a complete recovery.

As for the racing, Edvald Boasson Hagen took a commanding sprint win for Sky in what is likely to be the last day in this race the sprinters get their way. Before it came to the dash for the line, Egoi Martínez had joined Cofidis compatriot Luis Ángel Maté in the break of the day that at one time enjoyed a six-minute buffer on the pack. It was never going to work out though, and the duo was duly reeled back in with some 15 clicks to go. All Euskaltel riders finished inside the peloton.

General classification (full results here):

• (1, Bradley Wiggins (Sky), 13:07:55)
• 46, Gorka Verdugo, 0:35
• 57, Mikel Landa, 0:47
• 63, Egoi Martínez, 1:07
• 74, Jorge Azanza, 1:25
• 155, Alan Pérez, 16:54
• 167, Samuel Sánchez, 26:24
• 168, Ricardo García, 26:51
• 169, Peio Bilbao, 27:41

Photo: www.fundacioneuskadi.com