Arndt shades tight Dauphiné sprint finish at Le Teil

Nikias Arndt (Giant-Shimano) edged out Kris Boeckmans (Lotto Belisol) by the tightest of margins to claim stage three of the Critérium du Dauphiné following a chaotic bunch finish in Le Teil.

The German opened a sizeable gap when he hit the front with a shade over 200 metres remaining but he was almost pipped at the post by a determined Boeckmans, who will surely rue the timing of his effort. Boeckmans was in the process of passing Arndt just as he crossed the finish line, but in spite of the tight margins, he instinctively knew that he had been beaten to the punch by the Giant-Shimano rider.

To cap a fine day for Giant-Shimano, Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg claimed third place on the stage, just ahead of Yannick Martinez (Europcar). Arndt began the day with the brief of serving as Janse van Rensburg's lead-out man but when the South African was caught up in a crash, the hierarchy was switched and Giant-Shimano took the unusual step of allowing both men to have a go in the sprint.

"After the crashed, we didn't know if he'd be up for the sprint so we decided to rush to the line with two sprinters," Arndt explained. "I wasn't confident as I passed the last corner in eighth or tenth position but I sprinted much faster than I expected. I had the speed so I continued sprinting instead of leading Reinhardt out. As we came third and first, we're very happy."

Still just 22 years of age and in only his second season as a professional, Arndt is the latest addition to Giant-Shimano's impressive stable of sprinting talent. Headlined by Marcel Kittel, winner of four stages at last year's Tour de France, and John Degenkolb, winner of Paris-Tours and Gent-Wevelgem, the Dutch-based squad also claimed the final stage of the Giro d'Italia through Luka Mezgec. Arndt's victory was the team's 23rd of the season to date.

"We're known for having top sprinters with Marcel Kittel and John Degenkolb but we are also competitive at a second level of sprinting with Luka, Reinardt and myself. It's a great victory," Arndt said.

There were no frissons in the race for overall honours on the road to Le Teil. Chris Froome (Sky) maintains his lead of 12 seconds over Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), while Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) lies a further eight seconds back in third place ahead of Wednesday's more exacting run-in to Gap.

Heat takes its toll

Temperatures in the Auvergne were rising above 30 degrees Celsius at the start, and so it was no surprise that there was something of a truce called in the peloton during the opening exchanges of stage three. As soon as the flag dropped outside Ambert, a three-man break made up of Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Natnael Berhane (Europcar) and Cesare Benedetti (NetApp-Endura) scorched off the front and the bunch gladly left them to it.

The trio built up a lead of four minutes by the midway point, but given the temperatures and the heavy, rolling roads, neither they nor the peloton felt any particular compunction to force the pace early on. Indeed, due to the combination of the tough stage profile, a headwind and the heat, the Team Sky-led bunch covered just 28 kilometres in a subdued second hour of racing before the pace gradually began to ratchet back upwards.

With fast man Arnaud Démare in mind, FDJ.fr picked up the baton and began to slice away at the three leaders' advantage, with Pierrick Fédrigo particularly prominent. Trek Factory Racing later added Jens Voigt to the chase effort, but their collaboration understandably ended when Giacomo Nizzolo was involved in a crash with 62 kilometres to go. The Italian sprinter never remounted and abandoned the race soon afterwards due to a wrist injury.

By then, the break's lead was down to just two minutes and it collapsed still further on the day's second categorised climb, the Col de la Mûre, where FDJ's forcing saw a small group of riders that included Thor Hushovd (BMC) lose contact. In spite of Kadri's urgency and the fluid pedaling of Berhane, the break's lead was halved over the top of the climb and they were eventually swallowed up by the pack with 23 kilometres remaining.

There was a brief impasse following the catch, with none of the sprinters' teams willing to take responsibility, and Jens Voigt was quick to take advantage of the general hesitancy. The German stomped away just before the 20km to go banner, taking Pim Ligthart (Lotto-Belisol), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Kristijan Koren (Cannondale), Elia Favilli (Lampre-Merida) and Alexis Gougeard (Giant-Shimano) with him.

The group of strongmen quickly succeeded in building up a lead of 40 seconds over the bunch before Omega Pharma-QuickStep, FDJ and later Katusha began to marshal a cohesive chase. The eight put up fierce resistance until they were swept up seven kilometres from home. Lieuwe Westra (Astana) was the next to try his luck, but he, too, was reeled in before the red kite.

With the names at the very top of the sprinting pyramid – Kittel, Cavendish and Greipel – all absent, no one team was able to bring a semblance of order to proceedings and a wide range of fast men all entered the finishing straight with hopes of pulling off a victory in what ought to be the only mass finish of the week. FDJ.fr had been prominent throughout the stage in attempting to set up Arnaud Démare for the win, but their train seemed to derail in the twisting finale and the Frenchman could only manage eighth. Instead it was Giant-Shimano who emerged as the strongest force, with Arndt claiming the win.

"It was a hectic sprint after a hard day of racing because of the heat and because we first had to catch the breakaway," he said. "We knew that Arnaud Démare was probably the best sprinter here but it all came down to team work and we got a perfect lead out."

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