Tour de France - Stage 3

The war is on! There are crashes, chaos, and casualties! It looked and sounded like morning rush hour in the city or a skirmish from WWII! The only calm moment during this stage was the start. Thor chooses to wear yellow and loans his green jersey to McEwen. That?s where the pleasantries ended. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>

Voight and DeGroot attacked after only 3km. However, the concern seemed to be more over the positioning of the major contenders before the pave segments. Mayo and teammates crashed even before they get to the cobblestones. The teams of Ullrich, Mayo, Hamilton, and Armstrong flexed their muscle in an attempt to protect their stars. Unfortunately, Mayo lost critical time from his crash. I think the postal brigade was making a statement. There?s none better than the broad shoulders of Hincapie and Ekimov to lead the way. After USPS established their dominance, they let T-Mobile and Phonak in to do a little work instead of sucking wheels.

A report from the medical corpsman shows Marco Velo out with a broken collar bone. Wauters, Rasmussen, and O?Grady also suffered crashes.

The gap for Mayo is demoralizing. He also may have been held up at a railroad crossing. Talk about a one-two punch knockdown! I officiated a race when the railroad crossing arm came down. There wasn?t a train coming so one of the riders held up the arm while everyone passed through. That?s called Yankee ingenuity!

Tyler Hamilton told Roadcycling.com that ?We were very concerned?we did exactly what we needed to do.? In keeping with today?s military theme, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /?>
Tyler said, ?It was a battle?before the pave.?
Tyler didn?t sound too pleased when he said ?Pave is meant for Paris-Roubiax.?

Nazon ends up crossing the finish line first with Zabel and McEwen following. McEwen got third but will inherit the yellow jersey.

It looks to me as though the Posties have put a nail in the coffin of Mayo! Ullrich, are you worried?

Roadcycling.com and the Tyler Hamilton Foundation have joined forces to run a Tour de France auction in which you can bid on a Tyler Hamilton?s Phonak jersey as used in the Tour de France, and a Roadcycling.com cycling cap. Both items are signed by
Tyler ?Captain Courageous? Hamilton himself. Click here to learn more!

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