Eibegger takes stage and overall lead in Taiwan

At the end of what was considered as the coldest winter of Taiwan in 40 years, Markus Eibegger (Tabriz Petrochemical Team) shrugged of the cold, wind and rain to take stage 3 of the Tour de Taiwan.

With the temperatures dipping under 12 degrees Celsius at the start of the 127km stage from Taoyuan City Hall this morning, Eibegger seemed to be in his element as he finished the day comfortably ahead in 2:40:06. He also took over the tour leader's yellow jersey.

En route to the finish line at Chiang Kai Shek memorial at Cihu Visitor Centre, the peloton set a blistering pace of more than 47kph - far above those recorded in the last few days.

"The weather?" said Eibegger after the race. "I have no problem (with it) as it suits us Europeans very well.

"It was a dark race, but my team is very happy to win the stage and to keep the yellow jersey as well as keep the king of the mountain jersey and also the blue jersey thanks to Mehdi Sohrabi."

The Austrian Eibegger was part of an early breakaway group which went off early in the stage when he joined Rhys Pollock (Drapac Professional Team) and Jaan Kirsipuu (Champion System) just after Haigang Road.

They were also joined by Mart Ojavee (Champion System) and Dean Downing (Rapha Condor Sharp).

The break dominated for much of the race with Pollock picking up the first first sprint at Fulin Elementary School while Ojavee collected the remaining two sprints at Tung Ming Elementary School and also Song Wu Elementary School.

As riders began dropping off, the chasing pack caught up with the breakaways at Laochuang Road at the 87km mark.

With less than 30 kilometres to go, Eibegger went off to pick up both KOMs as two others, Pollock and Ojavee joined in to give chase. The peloton seemed content to not chase.

But a slip in the last five kilometres - involving Pollock and Ojavee - allowed Eibegger to carve an advantage all the way to the finish. He is now more than 12 seconds ahead of teammate Sohrabi and 19 seconds ahead of third placed David McCann of Giant Kenda in the general classification.

"I'm not happy because Markus took the yellow jersey from me, and I will have to win it back from him tomorrow," joked Mehdi afterwards.

"But seriously, it was a good race and I'm happy for Markus for winning the stage and the two jerseys - important that it stayed with the team."

With the win at the two final sprints, Ojavee has now taken over the sprinter's green jersey from Chan Jae Jang of the Korea national team.

"I just followed the breakaway duo at the end and it was just too bad what happened in the last few kilometres with the slip up," said Ojavee, who has collected a total of 15 points in the sprint - four more than second-placed Pollock.

The jersey for the best ranked Under 23 rider is still in the grasp of Adam Phelan of the Drapac Professional Cycling Team.

"It was really bad weather. It was windy all day long. I tried to keep up but it was very cold, a new experience for me," said Phelan.

Tomorrow's stage 4 will start at Hsinchu City and ends in Sun Moon Lake - the queen stage in this year's race, a long 192.5km ride south.

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