The peloton at the Tour of Britain (Image credit: Gerry McManus)
Australian Matthew Goss collected his first victory for Team CSC at the Tour of Britain's stage 3 on Wednesday. Goss won the 153km stage starting in Worchester and finishing Wolverhamton.
"It was great finally to win after a number of second and third places. It was a fantastic feeling," said Matthew Goss after the stage according to www.team-csc.com.
Goss proved he had the best legs from a group of six riders that had arrived at the city centre altogether after 152km of racing from Worcester through the tough Malvern Hills. He sprinted from the front of the group to win ahead of Freddy Bichot (Agritubel) and Roger Hammond (T-Mobile).
"Nine of us escaped and none of the teams had two riders in the group and none of us were less than 11 minutes behind in the general classification, so it was a good group to be in. Towards the end of the stage there were quite a few attacks and three of us got away. One kilometer before the finish three other guys caught up to us so there were six of us sprinting for the victory, but it still turned out quite well though," laughed Goss.
Goss was cautious about his chances going into the final sprint. "Roger (Hammond) was one of the guys I was watching the most," said Goss. "He is a fast guy and certainly strong as well."
Hammond is tied with race leader Nikolai Trusov for the lead in the points competition, but he will wear the green jersey tomorrow since Trusov will be decked out in the yellow leader's jersey.
After the stage, Hammond said, "It was great to finish in the top three for in my home region... . There were lots of spectators out cheering along the route today and it was fantastic to part of a break-away full of so many Brits. The pressure is on for me now to continue pushing on the remaining stages and with my team-mate Mark Cavendish right behind me with twenty two points there could be a bit of inter-team British rivalry!"
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The Tour of Britain continues Thursday with the fourth stage of the seven day race from Rother Valley Country Park to Bradford (163.3km).
