Some unusual rider-spectator interaction on the road in California on stage 3
Nicolas Roche put in a great effort for victory on stage 3 of the Tour of California, going clear with one of the Colombian national team on the last climb of the day before the duo were overhauled in the fast run in to the finish.
Fabio Duarte (Colombia-Coldeportes) was first to pounce on the Patterson Pass climb, with Roche (Ag2r) going after him. The pair pulled out a gap of around 20-25 seconds almost immediately.
Duarte looked very strong on the climb and took maximum points at the summit just ahead of the Irishman. However, once the climb was crested it was Roche who put the head down in an effort to keep the two-man escape clear to the finish 15kms down the road in Livermore.
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With the gap never going over 25 seconds and with too many teams with a vested interest in bringing it all back together, the leaders finally surrendered with around 8km to go.
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The Liquigas-Cannondale team of GC leader Peter Sagan and the Garmin Barracuda squad of stage-win hopeful Heinrich Haussler were most active on the front, keeping the pace high to bring back Roche and Duarte and then to prevent counter attacks once they were caught.
When the bunch whipped into Livermore it was Sagan who pounced again to take his third stage on the trot, with Haussler second and Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) in third.
Roche eventually finished in the 84-man bunch in 47th, with Philip Deignan (Unitedhealthcare) in 65th also on the same time.
Roche is now 36th on GC, with Deignan 41st. Both are among a large group of riders some 30 seconds down on Sagan; with all of that time having been gained by the Slovak in three stage win time bonuses.
Today’s stage from Sonora to Clovis is a whooping 209.6km with six categorised climbs – three fourth cats, two third cats and one second cat. The final climb is a third cat, some 75km from the finish.
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