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Tour de France - Waregem - Compiègne

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  1. 0km - That concludes today's coverage of the Tour de France. Join us tomorrow for coverage of stage four.

  2. 0km - Quite superb riding from Fabian Cancellara!!!! Erik Zabel was second, Napolitano third, Boonen fourth from what I could see.

  3. 0km - Fabian Cancellara holds off Erik Zabel in a fantastically dramatic finish!!!! He time-trialled his way to victory over the final kilometre!!

  4. 0.5km - The peloton has them in their sights!!! Cancellara attacks!!! Cancellara is moving clear!!!

  5. 1km - They're onto the cobbles of Compeigne now!

  6. 1.6km - Frederik Willems attacks again, but he can't shake off the other three, Vogondy is on his tail!!

  7. 2km - 23 seconds is the gap with exactly 2000m to go.

  8. 3.5km - Has any of these riders conserved any energy? Is Willems preparing another attack? The way things are going, they'll be caught, but it'll be mighty close!

  9. 5km - 43 seconds the gap with exactly 5000 metres to go, and the peloton are closing fast!!!

  10. 7.2km - Things are looking good for the lead four! The peloton may have misjudged this!! 1'09 the gap now!

  11. 9km - Frederik Willems attacks!!! Stephane Auge is on his wheel, Vogondy and Ladagnous are both holding on...just.

  12. 10km - This will be tight as to whether the peloton catch them or not. At the moment it looks like the lead quartet will be reeled in - just. 1'30" is the gap.

  13. 13km - Fabian Wegmann tries a breakaway, but the pace is such that he can't get clear.

  14. 22km - Credit Agricole and Quickstep are really putting their foot on the gas now. They are keen to give Hushovd and Boonen respectively a chance in the sprints. They've brought it down to 2'40".

  15. 30km - 3'20" is the gap with 30 kilometres to go. The peloton are still big favourites to reel them in, but the quartet now have hope.

  16. 34km - And indeed he has it. Auge picks up the three points by crossing the Cote de Blerancourt first!

  17. 35km - The polkadot jersey is in the offing for Stephane Auge. If he is among the first three to cross the top of the upcoming Cote de Blerancourt then he will take the jersey from David Millar.

  18. 37km - A quintet of T-Mobile riders is moving towards the front now. They will be depserate to give Mark Cavendish a shot in the sprint after his misfortunes over the first two stages.

  19. 39km - A fall in the peloton! But it's only a small one. Gert Steegmans, yesterday's stage winner, has gone over along with Alexander Botcharov. They're both back up soon though.

  20. 40km - Suddenly everyone has woken up. The lead four are working together well, and have got their lead up to 3'00" over the pack.

  21. 52km - Augé and Willems have caught Vogondy and Ladagnous! They have now formed a quartet 2'45" ahead of the peloton.

  22. 58km - The leaders are just 3'14 clear of the peloton now, and 2'37 clear of Augé and Willems.

  23. 61km - An attack! Thank goodness there's something to report!! Cofidis' Stephane Augé breaks away and is immediately joined by Liquigas' Frederik Willems.

  24. 68km - Euskaltel's Mikel Astarloza breaks clear of the peloton to take the two remaining points available at the final intermediate sprint of the day. In the breakaway, Vogondy had taken six points, with Ladagnous picking up four.

  25. 79km - Lampre have confirmed that Danilo Napolitano will be their man for the sprint today, as Daniele Bennati's hip is still hurting from the crash yesterday. Alessandro Ballan and Claudio Corioni will lead out Napolitano.

  26. 80km - Our two leaders have been out on their own for 145 kilometres now. The good news for them is that the rain has passed and the sun is out.

  27. 81km - Nothing much happening, is all I can say at the moment. 5'50 the gap.

  28. 93km - The result is that the pace of the stage is very slow, and that the riders are quite happily chatting away to eachother. No sense of urgency today, unlike the past two stages.

  29. 94km - A situation has now developed in the stage where the peloton have slowed down, knowing they can reel in the lead duo fairly quickly whenever they like. The lead duo, meanwhile, have slowed down too to conserve energy in the hope that they might be given too much time by the peloton, and might be able to hold them off with a late charge.

  30. 99km - Matthieu Ladagnous has just gone back to his team car for a long chat. He has taken a few water bottles on board, while the lead has stabilised at 4'50".

  31. 102km - The average speed over the second half of the race remains low: just 33.7km/h.

  32. 105km - Discovery Channel sporting director Johan Museeuw on the abandonment of Tomas Vaitkus: "We have to be more quiet now. We have no sprinters anymore. We have to see if we can get to the mountains without any problem. It's definitely a big loss when you have to lose somebody in the first week. He was going to be an important guy in the first part of the race. He was there to protect the leaders on the flat stages."

  33. 112km - The leaders are passing through Etreux (Km 123), while the peloton behind them are beginning to pick up the pace. CSC and Cedric Vasseur are to the fore in the main bunch now. The gap has plummeted to 6'56."

  34. 116km - The lead duo have extended their advantage back to just over the 10'00" mark again.

  35. 122km - As the peloton enters the feeding zone, Bouygues Telecom's Laurent Lefevre takes a break to greet friends and family in this, his home region.

  36. 125km - The average speed over the third hour of racing is 31km/h. That brings the average stage speed down to 34km/h.

  37. 132km - Romain Feillu takes the last points available in the second sprint of the day. He even went up onto the pavement to get round the peloton and cross the line first.

  38. 133km - Also, to get to David's message board, please do likewise with this link: http://uk.messages.eurosport.yahoo.com/Cycling/Competitions/threadview?m=tm&bn=UKS-CY-Tour+de+France&tid=331&mid=-1&tof=1&frt=2

  39. 133km - To follow live audio commentary of today's stage with David Harmon, please copy adn paste the following link into your browser: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/embedvideo.html?p=index#

  40. 134km - David Millar is riding along at the head of the peloton proudly in his polkadot jersey. Getting onto the podium in his home country on Sunday meant a huge amount to him.

  41. 135km - 8'50" is the lead of Vogondy and Ladagnous at the moment.

  42. 140km - The FdJ team are in a good position for today's stage. As well as being represented in the breakaway, they have Sebastien Chavanel (younger brother of Sylvain) capable of challenging in the sprints. He was fourth in Canterbury and tenth yesterday in Gent.

  43. 142km - The CSC team seem content to keep the lead duo on a leash of 8'00".

  44. 144km - The sun is back! A few rays have poked their way through the clouds, but it's still fairly chilly. Around 16 degrees.

  45. 160km - The gap's back down to 7'50".

  46. 161km - The conditions are pretty rotten for the riders today. Not only is the rain teeming down, but they also have a headwind of 20km/h to deal with. That should turn into a sidewind by the end of the stage.

  47. 163km - The two leaders have made a toilet stop! This is most unusual for breakaway riders. Their chances of staying away be minimal, but still...

  48. 164km - Here's one for all you stat fans out there: The leaders have covered 30.7 kilometres during the second hour of racing. That gives them an average speed of 35.5 km/h since the start of the stage.

  49. 168km - Ladagnous and Vogondy are being reeled in fairly quickly. Their advantage is down to just 8'25" as they go through Haveluy (Km 68).

  50. 172km - The peloton has arrived into Wallers (Km 64.5), just a short distance from the Wallers-Arenberg, a famous part of the Paris-Roubaix classic.

  51. 177km - The CSC team have started to put their foot down, and the gap has now come down to 11'15". Still a very long way to go.

  52. 183km - The gap between the leaders and the pack has stabilised at the 12'45" mark.

  53. 187km - While the riders make their way South towards Compiegne, we have just heard that the Unibet.com team have had their legal challenge against Tour de France organisers dismissed. As was the case in the Giro d'Italia, the Belgian-Swedish outfit were denied a place on the Tour despite their ProTour status.

  54. 189km - Put down your waffles and fetch the camembert. After a total of 196 kilometres (over the last two stages) in Belgium, we're back in France.

  55. 196km - The average speed over the first hour of racing is a fairly pedestrian 40.3km/h.

  56. 201km - The peloton are 11'35" behind the two leaders at the first intermediate sprint, where Euskaltel's Mikel Astaloza picks up the remaining two bonus seconds.

  57. 203km - SPRINT 1 - TOURNAI (KM.33.5): Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel) takes the first intermediate sprint of the day and collects the 6 points and 6 bonus seconds.

  58. 204km - Oscar Freire has a puncture and drops back to let a Rabobank mechanic change his wheel.

  59. 207km - Nicolas Vogondy (Agritubel) is now in the virtual yellow jersey at this year's Tour. He and Ladagnous are now 8'05" clear after less than 30 kilometres.

  60. 210km - 53 riders from six teams (Astana, Predictor-Lotto, Française des Jeux, AG2R, Discovery Channel and T-Mobile) were given blood tests this morning. They were all declared fine to start the stage.

  61. 215km - 4'10" is the latest split. The peloton may allow these two a long leash given the amount of time they have to reel him in.

  62. 218km - Follow the progress of the peloton through our rather nifty GPS system by copying and pasting the following link into your browser: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cy/tdf/gps/index.html

  63. 219km - 2'30" is now the gap. The CSC team are content to let this pair go. Vogondy, a former French champion, lies 77th in the GC, 54 seconds behind Fabian Cancellara, while Ladagnous is 130th, 1'05" back.

  64. 227km - Vogondy and Ladagnous have extended their lead to 40 seconds over the peloton.

  65. 228km - Agritubel have yet another man in a breakaway. Their Tour has begun well, though has of course been overshadowed by the loss of Eduardo Gonzalez in the first stage.

  66. 230km - An attack - it's FdJ's Matthieu Ladagnous. He is immediately joined by Nicolas Vogondy, one of the Agritubel boys.

  67. 234km - No attacks as of yet. The weather is holding up, the skies are still cloudy, though the rain is still forecast for later in teh stage.

  68. 236km - There are three intermediate sprints today: At Tournai (Km 33.5), Fontaine-au-Bois (Km 104.5) and Achery (Km 167.5).

  69. 236km - The start is given on stage three of the Tour de France!

  70. 10:50 - There's just one climb on today's agenda: the côte de Blérancourt, a Cat. 4 ascent (4.6% for 1 kilometre).

  71. 10:45 - A quick reminder of the situation with the jerseys. Fabian Cancellara is still our race leader in the yellow jersey. Tom Boonen's second-place finish in yesterday's stage gave him the green jersey, one point ahead of arch-rival Robbie McEwen. Vladimir Gusev wears the white jersey as he heads the young rider's classification, while Britain's David Millar is in the unfamiliar position of being the holder of the King of the Mountain's jersey.

  72. 10:45 - The peloton are now on the move toward the rolling start in Waregem. Thor Hushovd is sporting a heavily bandaged wrist.

  73. 10:30 - Daniele Bennati, who had his hips X-rayed following the same incident, has been passed fit to start, along with Predictor-Lotto's Fred Rodriguez and Leif Hoste. George Hincapie has a sore knee, though he too is fine to continue.

  74. 10:30 - The bad news ahead of today's stage is that Discovery Channel's Tomas Vaitkus has been forced to abandon with a fractured thumb sustained in the massive crash at the end of yesterday's stage.

  75. 10:30 - Once again there will be no repeat of the glorious summertime weather the riders enjoyed in the South of England at the weekend. Today's forecast is for temperatures of 15 degrees and showers.

  76. 10:00 - The Quickstep team will be determined to ensure that doesn't happen though. They took a stage win yesterday through Gert Steegmans, though are desperate to see their leader Tom Boonen win his first Tour stage since 2005.

  77. 10:00 - This stage sees the Tour head back from Belgium into France, and according to tour competition director Jean-Francois Pescheux "gives the escape artists their first realistic chance of breaking away and staying clear."

  78. 10:00 - Welcome to eurosport.yahoo.com's coverage of stage three of the Tour de France, a 236.5 kilometre trek from Waregem to Compiègne.

 
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