Sagan gets his victory, Voigt into yellow

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Peter Sagan of Liquigas took the first world calendar win of his young professional career on Wednesday, crossing the finish line first of a six-man group that contested a sprint finish on the third stage of Paris-Nice. The 20-year-old finished ahead of Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Nicolas Roche (Ag2R-La Mondiale).

It was day for both the young and the old. Fourth on the day, and only two seconds behind Sagan, was Jens Voigt, 38. The Saxo Bank veteran took over the yellow jersey from Rabobank's Lars Boom, who finished 27 seconds down on the stage winner.

"I’m very happy because it’s my first win in a big race," Sagan said. "But Roman Kreuziger is the number one in the team. Tomorrow my role is to help him out. I have no ambition here because I’m young and I’m here to learn."

At the other end of the age scale was new leader Voigt. "The young guns keep pushing and say, 'Hey, old man, go away!' It’s not getting easier with the years. But I still train hard, I still have the dedication and I’m still determined to get a few results," he said.

"Paris-Nice is a big race and after I had a good prologue, I told myself that with a little bit of luck I could sneak into the yellow jersey. I’m more than happy and now we have to try to hold on to it. Tomorrow is very tricky and we’ll see how the team goes and if it’s possible to take it all the way to Nice. I feel better than I did last year at the same time."

The decisive move came as the peloton turned towards the final climb of the day, the Côte de la Martinie, only three km before the finish. HTC-Columbia's Andre Greipel led teammate Tony Martin up the start of the climb. Roche attacked on the ascent, and Martin went with him. A six-man group formed over the top of the climb with Roche, Martin and Sagan joined by Rodriguez, Alberto Contador and Voigt. Contador led the group down to the one-kilometre marker, turning the lead over there to Rodriguez.

A late winter storm had caused a change in the day's schedule. There was enough snow in Saint-Junien to move the start to St. Yreix, 53 kilometres further along the original course. This cut out the first two planned ranked climbs of the day, and the organisers also cancelled the first intermediate sprint, which would have come 11 kilometres into the revised stage.

After a nervous start, a group of three got away at kilometre 33. Yann Huguet carried on the tradition of a Skil-Shimano rider in the escape group, accompanied by Nicolas Maes (Quick Step) and Jurgen Roelandts (Quick Step). That turned out to be the group of the day, and they quickly built up a lead of up to seven minutes by kilometre 67.

The day may have started with a snowstorm, but the sun came out along the way. The gap slowly fell, and was at four minutes by the time the leading trio hit the Côte de Sexcles, with 43 kilometres to go.

There was a battle for the mountain jersey today. Laurent Mangel of Saur Sojasun went into the stage leading the competition with only 11 points. He managed to pick up the maximum points at the first climb, a category three, but the leaders took the points at the next two climbs, both category two.

Mangel was able to snag fourth place at the Côte de Ste Fortunade, but at the Côte de Sexcles, Simon Geschke of Skil-Shimano moved out of the peloton to protect his teammate, Huguet, who had won both category two climbs for a total of 14 points. Geschke took fourth place and two points, holding Mangel down to fifth place and one point, however, the latter still holds a four point lead in the competition overall.

With around 23 kilometres to go, Huguet felt the peloton were too close to his personal space and attacked his companions. Roelandts was able to catch him, but they dropped Maes, and were able to build their lead up to a minute and a half. The duo stayed away as long as they could, but with six kilometres to go, their time was up.