2015 Tour de France Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2015 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
After the windswept drama of yesterday, stage 3 of the Tour de France served up an equally chaotic series of events that saw the peloton decimated by a high-speed crash leading to the race being neutralised on three occasions, but Joaquim Rodriguez ignored his wounds to time his effort up the Mur to Huy and take his second career Tour de France stage win ahead of Chris Froome (Team Sky).
A six second time bonus saw Froome take the yellow jersey by one second ahead of Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) after Fabian Cancellara (Trek) lost over five minutes having been caught up in the crash.
Rodriguez, the 2012 La Flèche Wallonne champion had sent his Katusha team to the front at the flame rouge, letting Froome lead on the early slopes of the climb before bursting up the left-hand side of the road, showing a clear pair of cleats and skipping away to victory.
"This is a special moment. I won Fléche-Wallonne here and so know the Mur well. It was very different today. I couldn’t get it wrong today because I knew I had the legs," Rodriguez said after claiming the win. "It was a tough, tough stage. There was the crash and it was close to me but it ended well."
Vincenzo Nibali finished seventh in a group with Nairo Quintana, 11 seconds behind Rodriguez and Froome, while as Alberto Contador crossed the line in 12th place, a further seven seconds back.
The Dutch dream of claiming a first yellow jersey in 26 years was dashed as Tom Dumoulin was forced to abandon the race with a suspected dislocated shoulder in the mass pile up that occurred with 68km to race. Simon Gerrans’ horror season continued with the Australian fracturing his wrist in the same crash and abandoning the race. Katusha’s Dmitriy Kozonchuk also abandoned the race due to his injuries while Laurens ten Dam dislocated his shoulder but popped it back in to finish the stage.
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