Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) has won Stage 3 of Paris-Nice. The Australian took an uphill sprint at the end of the rolling, 179-km ride from Saint-Amand-Montrond to Saint-Pourcain-sur-Sioule to win in 4:32:12. Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) finished second, and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) took third. Matthews has taken the overall lead in the race.

At nine km, the break of the day first took shape. Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Florian Vachon (Bretagne-Seche Environnement) sallied off of the front. Antoine Duchesne (Europcar) and Bradley Wiggins (Sky) attempted to bridge up to the move, but the peloton reeled them in. The break led the bunch by 5:20 at 30 km, when the peloton began to chase. When the bunch was within one minute of the escapees, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) attempted to bridge up to the break. He reached it at 74 km.

The break’s lead lengthened, and at 97 km, the bunch led the break by 5:15. Etixx-Quick Step, Katusha, and Sky chased, and the fugitives’ advantage dropped to three minutes with 30 km to go and to two minutes five km later. With about 20 km remaining, Gilbert sat up. His erstwhile companions forged ahead. The peloton snared Vachon with 10 km left.

Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) bridged up to Voeckler. Jan Bakelants and Romain Bardet (both from Ag2r-La Mondiale) joined the pair just as the Europcar man was dropped. The break forged a 16-second lead but was reeled in with two km to go.

Orica-GreenEdge took over at the front. The Australian squad beat back Lampre-Merida’s attempt to take command. On the race’s last turn, Matthews jumped into the lead and held off Cimolai.

Before the stage, Orica-GreenEdge saw today’s stage as one that it could win. The Australian squad’s plan was based on dominating the final km of the race. “Full credit to the team for the win. It was all them,” Matthews said. “I just had to do the last 200 m, and that was probably the easy part.

"We had a good meeting this morning and said everyone is in good shape and if we work together we can really nail this. The way they rode was absolutely textbook. It was exactly the way we talked about in the meeting. I couldn’t ask for a better leadout.

“From four km to go we dominated the race and we showed our strength in the leadout and no one could come near us with the horsepower we had.”

In the overall, Matthews leads former leader Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-Quick Step) and Rohan Dennis (BMC) by 0:01. Matthews will not enjoy his yellow jersey for long. Stage 4 will be a hilly, 204-km affair that will end with an ascent of the Category 1 Croix de Chaubouret. Who will take the golden fleece? Richie Porte (Sky)? Kwiatkowski? Tejay Van Garderen (BMC)? Check in at www.roadcycling.com and find out!