Albasini wins in Swansea

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The fine weather of stage two changed back to rain for stage three of the Tour of Britain as it headed on its 93 mile journey Newtown to Swansea. The change in weather was echoed by a change in the yellow jersey when Michael Albasini of HTC-Columbia took the stage and with it the overall race lead from Greg Henderson of Sky Pro Cycling Team.

After a leg-sapping stage yesterday that clearly caught a lot of riders out, there was no chance of soft pedalling through the Brecon Beacons of Wales. The route climbed from the start and by the time the race de-neutralised most club riders would have already been dropped. After five miles of climbing the first King of the Mountains prime was won by Wouter Poels. A day full of attacking riding had already started with one rider after another riding off the front in the wind and rain. However, it wasn't until after Builth Wells, at 31 miles that the first group managed to escape.

The riders in the break posed no seeming threat to the general classification chances of Sky so they were allowed to get away and built up a lead of over four minutes.

The nine riders who escaped the main field were Ian Bibby (Motorpoint - Marshalls Pasta), Evan Oliphant (Endura Racing), Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator), Albert Timmer (Skil - Shimano), Simon Richardson (Sigma Sport - Specialized), Mark McNally (An Post - Sean Kelly), Elia Favilli (ISD - Neri Giambenini), Cameron Meyer (Garmin - Transitions) and Pim Lighart (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team).

Over the top of Black Mountain, the big climb of the day there was one lone leader, Cameron Meyer of Garmin-Transitions but he was chased by a group of eight including Albasini. The treacherous descent of Black Mountain (where visibility was down to twenty feet) brought down Darren Lapthorne of Rapha Condor Sharp, who suffered a broken collar bone and was immediately taken away in an ambulance and out of the race.

The frenetic period of activity after the Black Mountain saw Albasini fighting to maintain a Yellow Jersey winning advantage in pursuit of Meyer. He was chased by a group that included Henderson and a number of Sky Riders. Rapha Condor Sharp were represented by House and Dempster whilst Dan Craven, holding 10th place on GC overnight tried to fight his way back on.

Meyer was eventually caught by the eight chasers on the run in to Swansea, and as the bunch passed the finish line it was nine leaders who would tackle the climb of Constitution Hill together. The first to the bottom of this legendary cobbled climb was Albasini, and he held the lead to the top and took the win and yellow jersey in front of rain soaked crowd in Swansea.

At post race press conference the 29-year-old Albasini said, "Our tactics today were to make the race hard and fast so that we can something on the long climb (Black Mountain) so for 50km there was attacking and attacking. My team made a good pace and together with Vaconsoleil we rode really hard on the climb.

"Downhill it wad really wet and fast. Tony Martin and I rode full gas and then someone made a small gap and we went away and we chased the leading group, but no one was coming from behind and we tried to go to the finish even though it was a long way.

"Tony did a really big job for me, as it was just me and him, but it was a really hard 40km. In the last 10km I only did two lead outs and the rest of the time Tony did all the pulling, so I could be rested for the climb of the cobbled hill."

Asked if he could keep the yellow jersey the Swiss rider laughed and said, "Yes, of course. It's a big call to bring the jersey to London but as you saw today we are a really strong team and we are always attacking."

So, who did the popular Albasini think was his biggest rival for the yellow jersey? "I think it is Richie Porte. He is in good shape but I think with my team we can bring the jersey to London."

Porte will certainly be one to watch as he already holds both the King of the Mountains jersey and the Sprints jersey, so he might want to add the yellow to his collection.

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