Pieter Ghyllebert (An Post-Sean Kelly) retains his sprint jersey

Tour of Britain Stage 3

Stoke-on-Trent – Trentham Gardens 150km

The An Post-Sean Kelly team has gone on the attack in the Tour of Britain again today, with Andrew Fenn going clear in the early breakaway before finishing 10^th on the stage.

The Briton, who is moving to Omega Pharma-QuickStep at the end of the season, is now 6^th overall, second in the young riders’ classification and also picked up the combativity award for his aggression on today’s stage.

His team mate Pieter Ghyllebert today managed to collect more points in the hot spot sprints and keeps the sprints jersey that he won when he was part of a two-man breakaway away for almost all of Sunday’s 106-mile stage in Scotland.

Fenn went clear almost from the start of today’s stage with Russell Hampton (Sigma Sport-Specialized) and Boy Van Poppel (UnitedHealthcare).

They built a lead of three minutes but as the racing intensified behind over lumpy roads the field split into four main groups.

The leading trio were reeled in with around 40 miles remaining, with a group of almost 30, dominated by Sky and HTC-Highroad, coming to the finish together.

But despite all the work from those two super-teams, it was the Rabobank duo of Lars Boom and U23 world champion Michael Matthews that stole the show in the finishing sprint into Trentham Gardens.

Stage winner Boom also took the overall lead from Stage 1 winner Mark Cavendish.

Andrew Fenn was the only one of the An Posts to finish in the lead group, taking 10^th on the stage and moving to 6^th on GC. He is also second in the young rider classification, just one second behind Matthews.

The three Irish riders in the race – An Post-Sean Kelly duo Mark Cassidy and Ronan McLaughlin and HTC-Highroad’s Matt Brammeier – were in the wrong end of the splits today.

They were in the last group on the road, losing just over 12 minutes as Sky and HTC-Highroad put the hammer down up front as strong winds lashed the field.

Said winner Lars Boom after the stage: “With 200 metres to go I managed to jump over (Steve) Cummings and (Geraint) Thomas and then the corners started so they couldn’t pass us anymore.  My first aim was to pull for Michael (Matthews) and then I felt good so I am happy to win.”

“We knew that you can’t bring HTC and Cavendish or the Sky boys to the finish.  We knew we would have to surprise them, and we managed to do that.”

“I know that it is always tricky with the wind when you are in England.  I saw the Sky guys move up to the front and there was point that there was a lot of wind.  It was a good point to go and we managed to get away.”

“It is nice to win.  It’s nice to win before the World Championships.  I am to try and defend the jersey and win the overall; that is the goal now.”

Tomorrow’s stage 4 is a 184km tough run through the Welsh hills that features three climbs – two first cats and a third cat.

Result: Stage 3

Sprint 1 – Stone, 22.4km 

Sprint 2 – Uttoxeter, 44.9km 

Mountain 1 – Ramshorn (Cat. 2) 63.2km 

Mountain 2 – Gun Hill (Cat. 1) 86.4km 

Most combative 

General Classification

Points classification 

Sprint classification 

Mountains classification 

Young riders classification 

Mark Cavendish and  Matthew Brammeier at the head of the peloton

Tour of Britain peloton under dark skies