Tour de France: Rodriguez wins on the Mur de Huy

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After the windswept drama of yesterday, Stage 3 of the Tour de France served up an equally chaotic series of events with Joaquim Rodriguez ignoring his crash wounds and emerging victorious atop the Mur de Huy ahead of ahead of Chris Froome (Team Sky).

A high-speed crash with 58km remaining in the stage saw the race neutralised on three occasions over the next eight kilometres with the explanation given that the safety of riders in the front group could not be guaranteed with all race doctors and ambulances occupied at the scene of the crash. 

Rodriguez, the 2012 La Flèche Wallonne champion had sent his Katusha team to the front at the flamme rouge, letting Froome lead on the early slopes for the climb before bursting up the left-hand side of the road showing a clear pair of cleats and skip away to victory and simultaneously claim the first king of the mountains jersey in this year's race.

"This is a special moment. I won Fléche Wallonne here and so know the Mur well. I couldn’t get it wrong today because I knew I had the legs," Rodriguez said after his second career win at the Tour. "It was a tough, tough stage. It was a normal day until the crash but it went okay for me. I don’t know why they stopped the race but we all started the Mur de Huy at a high pace. I wasn’t sure I could win but I accelerated and it felt like it was the longest time I ever spent going up the Mur de Huy."

A six second time bonus saw Froome take the yellow jersey by one second ahead of Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) after Fabian Cancellara (Trek) lost over five minutes having been caught up in the crash.

Vincenzo Nibali finished seventh in a group with Nairo Quintana, 11 seconds behind Rodriguez and Froome, while Alberto Contador crossed the line in 12th place, a further seven seconds back.

The first yellow jersey for Froome since his 2013 Tour victory and 15th in total came as a surprise to the Sky captain who expressed his disbelief post-stage.

"I didn't wake up this morning thinking I'd be in yellow. That was a real surprise. I knew there would be gaps up that climb, but I really didn't expect it to be significant enough to get into yellow. A huge thank you to my teammates today," Froome said. "They turned themselves inside out to keep me always at the front of the race. Today was treacherous, lots of crashes again. Left, right up down all day - not too different from the Flèche Wallonne classic this year. I just couldn't be happier to be in yellow going into the cobble stage tomorrow."

The closest GC rival to Froome is Tejay Van Garderen in third place, 13 seconds in arrears with Alberto Contador 36 seconds back in eighth, Nibali 1:38 minutes back in 13th and Quintana 17th at 1:56 minutes. Romain Bardet (Ag2r) finds himself 2:54 minutes down on Froome with Thibaut Pinot four seconds behind his compatriot.

The Dutch dream of claiming a first yellow jersey in 26 years was dashed as Tom Dumoulin was forced to abandon the race with a suspected dislocated shoulder due to the crash while Fabian Cancellara’s chances of defending yellow evaporated with the Trek rider also hitting the deck and heading for scans after crossing the line.

Simon Gerrans' horror season continued with the Australian fracturing his wrist in the same crash and abandoning the race. Katusha's Dmitriy Kozonchuk also abandoned the race due to his injuries while Laurens ten Dam dislocated his shoulder but popped it back in to finish the stage. William Bonnet (FDJ), the first rider to hit the deck, appeared to be the worst off with doctors moving to place him in a neck brace as he lay on the ground. A fractured collarbone was confirmed for Daryl Impey after the stage, ruling the Orica-GreenEdge rider out of the race.

How it unfolded

The weather of yesterday disappeared overnight with warm 25-degree weather greeting the riders on the start line but this wasn't to be a calm day in the saddle.

After a flat to a Katusha rider at kilometre zero, the stage was slightly delayed for him to regroup. Bryan Nauleau (Europcar) attacked and instigated the ‘commercial break'. Nauleau was joined by yesterday's aggressor Jan Barta (Bora-Argon 18), Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) and Serge Pauwels for MTN-Qhubeka's first breakaway representation at the Tour. Pauwels enjoyed the ride through his home town of Lierre with the breakaway's lead growing to 1:40 minutes after 10km of racing as Astana and FDJ sat on the front of the peloton and let the quartet play.

With 15km raced, Trek made their way to the front for the first time as duty called for the team of the maillot jaune as the break extended its lead out over two minutes. Pauwels found himself as the virtual maillot jaune at the 20km mark as the gap pushed out to 2:50 minutes. With the lead hitting there-and-a -half minutes, Barta moved into second on the virtual GC.

First yellow jersey of the race, Rohan Dennis (BMC), had an innocuous fall with the break slowly growing its lead to 3:45 minutes at the 40km mark. At the 47.km mark the race passed through Meensel-Kiezegem, the birthplace of Eddy Merckx, where a statue was unveiled for the five-time champion.

With the advantage of the quartet hovering around three minutes Tinkoff-Saxo, Trek, Movistar, Astana and Team Sky occupied the front line in a holding pattern. Inside of 100km to go and the lead dropped back under three minutes.

The peloton's speed slowly increased, warming up for first hills of the race with gap down to 2:45 minutes then quickly dropping to under two minutes seemingly in the blink of an eye as the peloton rolled through the feed zone.

With 66km to go, the gap was a measly 28 seconds as Movistar and Astana took over pace making. FDJ moved up make their presence felt as did BMC in the yellow helmets as leaders of the team classification with the fist climb of the race, the Côte de Bohisseau, on the horizon.

At 58km to go a huge crash on right hand side of road caused by a touch of wheels saw William Bonnet (FDJ) fall and heavily and cause a pile up reminiscent of the ‘Metz Massacre' crash at the 2012 Tour de France.

Several rider on the outside were lucky to fall into the grass but were halted by a telegraph pole which quickly became the epicentre of the crash site. An unlucky Dumoulin looked to surf 10 metres on his stomach surrounding by somersaulting riders and bicycles.

A second crash on the opposite side of the road 500 metres in advance took more riders although all the GC men were unscathed.

The race briefly neutralised with news filtering through that Cancellara was one of the fallers. The race was resumed and Sky with Luke Rowe quickly dropped the hammer.

As race radio announced Dumoulin was abandoning in an ambulance with a dislocated shoulder, the stage was again neutralised at the base of the Côte de Bohisseau with race doctors busy at the two crash sites. As the riders surrounded the lead cars Bonnet's abandonment was announced along with falsely, Laurens ten Dam (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge). There was a brief resumption as Cancellara reached the back of the reduced peloton before race was called to a halt for a third time.

During the pause images of Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge), Johan Vansummeren (AG2R), Greg Henderson (Lotto) in torn and bloodied kit, a reminder of how brittle a cyclist is when confronted with a fall at high speed onto asphalt.

A ten-minute wait on the early slopes of the climb allowed the fallen to regroup and assess how many layers of skin had been left on the road while the race jury car tried to make its way through the peloton to the front of the race.

The Coté de Bohisseau was neutralised with racing resuming at the 50km to go mark as Christian Prudhomme gave his blessing for racing to resume 20 minutes after the crash. With the pace slow, an obviously pained Cancellara dropped back to his team car for assistance gesturing to his right upper hip.

Katusha, Lotto-Soudal and Sky were lined across the front of the peloton as riders started to warm up after the mid-race pause. A fractured wrist was the diagnosis for Gerrans while Dmitriy Kozonchuk's name was added to the list of abandons with 45km to race.

Sky, Cannondale-Garmin and Tinkoff-Saxo were the first teams to lift the pace with riders making their way through a long convoy to regroup. After 10km of racing since the neutralisation was lifted, Astana and Tinkoff-Saxo felt the wind change and forced a split with Sky quick to make the junction.

Riders caught out in the split included Cancellara with the yellow jersey group finding itself 18 seconds behind the front GC group on the run in to the intermediate sprint point in Havelange.

Having been caught out in the cross winds, Alejandro Valverde, Bardet, Pinot and Gerg Van Avermaet (BMC) made the junction to the front group just before the sprint point with Andre Greipel taking the spoils ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin). The two front groups where all back together with 30km left to race.

On the base of the Côte d'Ereffe Angelo Tulik (Europcar) attacked to go solo as Cancellara was dropped on the early slopes of the cat 4 climb on which Michael Schär took maximum points. With 13km left, the yellow jersey group was 2:22 minutes in arrears as Richie Porte set a fierce tempo to set up Froome for the win.

By the 10km to go mark, Porte had grown the gap back to the Cancellara out to 3:50 minutes as the fight for position at the front of the race was on in earnest. Tinkoff-Saxo took over at the front and the gap went out to four minutes as Etixx-Quick Step then took a turn to add 30 seconds to the margin.

Rafal Majka drove the pace up the Côte de Cherave followed by Michal Kwiatkowski who had Froome glued to his wheel as the peloton splintered, Rui Costa and Pinot among the casualties. As Majka crested the Cote de Cherave, the yellow jersey was 5:20 minutes back.

Roman Kreuziger overshot a corner allowing Thomas to come to the front with only the Mur to come before Bob Jungels (Trek) took over and start the climb up the Mur du Huy in first place.

As Jungels starting going backwards, the GC men came forward with Froome leading and Contador stuck on his wheel and Quintana to his left. Rodriguez launched his attack with Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) jumping on his wheel and Froome quick to respond. Gallopin faded as Froome skipped by but there was no catching Rodriguez. Alexis Vuillermoz (Ag2r) and Daniel Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) finished fast but left their moves too late as the group of Van Garderen, Nibali, Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge), Quintana, Bauke Mollema (Trek) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) crossed the line 11 seconds down.

With the cobbles of stage four to come, Tony Martin sits in second place overall, 0.7 of a second of Froome while Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) moved into the white jersey with Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) and BMC retains their leads in the sprint and team classifications.

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