Finish marred as first two crash after the line
Having taken his first victory of the season two days before, Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) took his second in stage three of the Bayern-Rundfahrt between Kempten and Treuchtlingen. The 38-year-old Ale-Jet was fastest to the line at the end of the 196km stage, finishing just ahead of Belarusian Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat), but the finish was marred as the two riders came together after the line and crashed. Petacchi was largely unhurt, but Hutarovich suffered a large cut over his left eye.
“This is the first time in my career that I’ve crashed after the finish,” said Petacchi. “For me it will probably not be a big problem. I just hope that Hutarovich is okay and he can start tomorrow. His face didn’t look good.”
The stage was dominated by a four-man break from Daniel Westmattelmann (Eddy Merckx-Indeland), Andre Benoit (Heizomat), Jacob Fiedler (NSP-Ghost) and Bastian Bürgel (Thüringer Energie), who escaped after 5km. By the 70km point the quartet had been allowed to open up a lead of nine minutes by the Sky team of stage two winner Michael Rogers before the British team began to pull them back.
With the gap down to just a few seconds inside the final ten kilometres, the Orica-GreenEdge team took over, to be joined by FDJ-BigMat, Lampre-ISD and Garmin-Barracuda, and the four riders were finally pulled back with just over three kilometres to go.
A number of other teams, including NetApp and Katusha, tried to take control in the final kilometres, but Lampre-ISD delivered Petacchi to the line to take his second stage of the race.
Finishing safely in the peloton, Rogers held on to his overall lead, heading into the following day’s time trial.
Result stage 3
1. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-ISD
2. Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-BigMat
3. John Degenkolb (Ger) Argos-Shimano
4. Michael Schweizer (Ger) Abus-Nutrixxion
5. Allan Davis (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
6. Stéphane Poulhiés (Fra) Saur-Sojasun
7. Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack-Nissan)
8. Koldo Fernández (Spa) Garmin-Barracuda
9. Alexander Porsev (Rus) Katusha Team
10. Ricardo Garcia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
Standings after stage 3
1. Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Sky
2. Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Katusha Team @ 5s
3. Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Saur-Sojasun @ 9s
4. Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Team Sky @ 12s
5. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan @ 13s
6. Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-ISD @ 16s
7. Allan Davis (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge @ 30s
8. John Degenkolb (Ger) Argos-Shimano @ 32s
9. Markus Fothen (Ger) Team NSP-Ghost @ 33s
10. Michael Schwarzmann (Ger) Team NetApp @ 34s