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| Stage 3 goes up Corsica's west coast |
Monday’s stage 3 from
Ajaccio to Calvi is a short, twisting, turning, up-and-down roller with no real
flat sections. It is a great stage for an escape to succeed. Despite my
prediction, most of the sprinters were unable to keep up with stage 2’s fast
pace over the cat-2 Col de Vizzavona, and tomorrow will be more of the same. It
will be difficult again for the sprinters to stay with a high pace, and as the
profile shows, the course may be too short for the sprinters’ teams to organize
a successful chase of the break. The last climb is the toughest of the stage’s
four climbs. The measured climb is a 3.3k-long category-2 with an average
gradient over 8%. From the top, it is a fast 13k down to the finish in Calvi.
Classics contenders and good
rolleurs will again like the look of
stage 3. It is also another good stage for Peter Sagan to take the green jersey.
I would look out for Francesco Gavazzi, Philippe Gilbert, Michael Albasini, Tony
Gallopin, Simon Gerrans, Arthur Vichot, Andrey Amador, Jon Izagirre and Julien
Simon among others. Another guy who can tear up a stage like tomorrow’s is
Cadel Evans. There is a decent chance that we could see the top GC men race for
the win if someone gets frisky. My dark-horse pick is Jonathan Hivert of
Sojasun, but smart money is on Sagan.
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| Stage 3 Profile |
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