4 Jours de Dunkerque / Tour du Nord-pas-de-Calais 2011: Stage 3

Welcome to the third day of the Four Days of Dunkirk.  Will Marcel Kittel be able to make it a hat-trick today?

Day three of four!  Actually, third of five!  Lots of action today.

35km remaining from 171km

With 35km to go, we have a six-man break group with just about two minutes on the field.

Remy Cusin (Cofidis), Anders Lund (Leopard Trek), Andy Cappelle (Quick Step), Cyril Bessy (Saur SojaSun), Mathieu Claude (Europcar) and Anthony Colin (Roubaix Lille Metropole) form the escape group.

29km remaining from 171km

Katusha, Vacansoleil and Leopard Trek are leading the chase.

Oops, let's make that 25km to go and 1:05.

Colin has won at least two of the four mountain rankings today, giving him the overall lead in that category.

Cappelle, Cusin and Claude are now alone in the lead, with a one-minute gap.  The other three have been caught by the field.

15km remaining from 171km

1:10 now for the leading trio, with Skil-Shimano and Topsport Vlaanderen leading the chase.

The three are doing their best, but the gap is starting to come down and is now under a minute.

Everything indicates that we will have another mass sprint today.  Will Skil-Shimano's Marcel Kittel be able to make it three in a row?

9km remaining from 171km

The three still have about a minute.

Now down to 40 seconds.....

4km remaining from 171km

Katusha turned up the speed and the gap is now only 25 seconds.

3km remaining from 171km

These three guys really want to come through to the end! They still have 20 seconds.

Flamme Rouge!

And the break was caught before the last km.  The sprint is underway!

Kittel!  He does it again!

What a race this young German is having!

Yauheni Hutarovich of FDJ took second, with Katusha's Denis Galimzyanov claiming third.

Here are our standings:

1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Skil - Shimano
2 Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ
3 Denis Galimzyanov (Rus) Katusha Team

General classification after stage 3
1 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Skil - Shimano

That's it for today.  Thanks for reading along.