French rider Samuel Dumoulin, one of four who attacked right from the start, lasted through to the end to win stage three of the 2008 Tour de France.
Another Frenchman, Romain Feillu, also part of the flag-to-flag attack, captured the yellow jersey.
William Frischkorn, an American riding for American team Garmin Chipotle, came home second.
In a totally unforeseen turn of events, the peloton was unable to catch the race-long breakaway. All the powerful teams with all their intricate plans simply weren’t there when it mattered.
A Sprinters’ Stage, Say the Experts
Stage Three of the 2008 Tour de France, St. Malo to Nantes, covered 208 km of gentle hills with a completely flat finish, ensuring a sprinters’ battle at the end.The road rises up 130 meters at the fifty km mark and drops fairly steeply about 30 km from the end, but the final 20 km are billiard-table flat, and the wind was at the riders’ backs, ensuring a very fast sprint finish.
The weather chilly (61 degrees F, or 16 degrees C) rainy and very windy, making for an uncomfortable morning on the bike.
Fast Attack
The race opened with a four-rider attack by William Frischkorn of Garmin-Chipotle, Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Paolo Longo Borghini (Barloworld) and Romain Feillu (Agritubel) which opened up a five-minute gap within the first thirty kilometers.
