Roberts wins dash into Alhama de Murcia

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In Australian parlance, Milram's Luke Roberts is having a "blinder" of a season, and his road renaissance continued on Friday as he claimed the third stage of the Tour of Murcia in Spain.

Roberts sprinted ahead of a select front peloton to secure arguably the biggest stage win of his career and his first since the 2008 Giro del Capo. He was joined on the podium by Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil) and Josep Jufre (Astana), who assumed the race lead.

"That was a perfect stage for us! Our performances the last few days hadn't been rewarded and this is a great satisfaction for us,“ said Milram's Directeur Sportif Ralf Grabsch at the podium ceremony. "Our team did a good job to bring Luke Roberts and Tommy Rohregger into the finale. In the end there were no sprinters there and we had the strongest rider in the group; Luke.“

Grabsch also praised Milram neo-pro Dominik Nerz for his work on the second of the stage's two Category 1 climbs. "Dominik is riding very strongly here this week and has integrated himself into the team very well. Today he was the most important helper on the mountains for Roberts, [who was] falling back only shortly before the top. That was a great performance on this Queen stage.“

Jufre's control of the yellow jersey owed a lot to his ability to stay on terms with the front group, but his path to the tunic was made easier after former leader Robert Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) exited the race during the stage. The South African dashed immediately away from Spain to be by his wife's side after word arrived that she had gone into labour with the couple's second child.

Roberts, too, accelerated his way into second overall. Frantisek Rabon (Team HTC-Columbia) has assumed third place on the major classification.

The race to remember Pantani

Although the stage profile indicated only one truly significant climb, the Category 1 Alto del Collado Bermejo had been the centre of attention even before the start of the Tour on Wednesday.

Faced with a storm of controversy over his alleged discrimination against Italian teams, Race Director Paco Guzmán had pointed to the summit - where a memorial prize to Marco Pantani would be awarded to the first rider to cross - as a symbol of solidarity with Spain's European neighbours.

Whatever the significance of the climb, 107 riders set off from Las Torres de Cotillas bound for its slopes. Bradley Wiggins (Sky) appeared more anxious than most when he escaped with nine other riders early in the stage. An impromptu tête-à-tête ensued between RadioShack and the temporary leaders as the American squad worked to successfully reel in the escape.

Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Michal Kwiatkowski (Caja Rural), Jan Barta (NetApp) and Marcel Barth (German Team) were the next to zip off the front. The quartet quickly revealed themselves as the escape of the day; building a lead of nine minutes on their way past the 50-kilometre mark.

That'll do boys

The leash was extended only so far, however, as RadioShack, Garmin-Transitions and Rabobank marshalled their troops and reduced the advantage to below five minutes. The gap was broken by a sole chaser, Frenchman Alexandre Blain (Endura Racing), whose brave attempt fell to nought over the next 30 kilometres.

Several minutes after the four escapees had begun the only other categorized climb of the day, the Cat. 3 Alto de Pliego, Race leader Robert Hunter (Garmin-Transitions) pulled over to the side of the road. The South African was to begin an even more desperate race: to be with his wife, who had just gone into labour.

Despite the symbolism of the Bermejo, the race did have to contend with the Alto de Espuña on its way to the summit. Though lower in altitude that the climb that would follow, the Category 1 ascent proved fatal for the breakaway and its lead had all but evaporated as the Bermejo began.

Dutch courage not quite enough

As expected, the final climb again served to change the face of the race. Peter Weening (Rabobank) appeared solo on the descent, but it had been Wouter Poels who had secured the Marco Pantani prize for another of the race's other Dutch team, Vacansoleil.

Clearly, Poels was in a boisterous mood as he worked to bridge across to Weening with Vacansoleil teammate Rob Ruijgh, Josep Jufre (Astana) and Stefan Denifl (Cervélo TestTeam). Sky's Chris Froome and Wiggins had been fifth and sixth across the summit, but it was the quintet ahead that put their heads down in a desperate dash to the finish.

With six kilometres to go on the largely down hill run to the line the escape held a 25-second advantage over a group of some 25 riders, including Wiggins and Lance Armstrong (RadioShack). Three kilometres later and the gap was just 10 seconds as the break's slim hope wore thinner and thinner.

But alas, the majority ruled over the minority as the escape was swept up on the approach to the final kilometre. In a group that contained the race's expected heads of state, it was Luke Roberts (Milram) who proved to be the best of the select bunch as he crossed the line ahead of Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil) and former-escapee turned new race leader, Jufré (Astana).

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