Day three of the first major Tour of the year saw a new Pro-Tour rider take his first victory in his first race.  Manuel Cardoso of the Footon-Servetto-Fuji team pulled clear at the finish line with, surprisingly,  Alejandro Valverde claiming second and Cadel Evans in third.

It was a blisteringly hot day with 42 degree temperatures and many riders in the peloton were suffering. A breakaway was chased down in the final kilometres with Caisse d’Epagne pulling hard at the front of the peloton.  The sprinters lined up but had nothing to give after a tough stage and the uphill finish saw them drop off.  Portugese national champion Cardoso stepped up and managed to stay clear of the heavy weights Valverde and Evans.

Speaking afterwards Cadel Evans talked about the run in. “Coming into the last kilometre it was like riding a race in slow motion, everyone was so exhausted,” explained Evans. “When I saw that it looked like they had the leadouts going - Sky, Rabobank… when they started to accelerate they blew.

“I was just following the wheels through [the group] and it looked like Caisse d’Epargne had enough guys left to follow close to Cardoso but obviously not and I couldn’t come round him,” he added.

“I was on Graeme Brown’s wheel with 700m to go and he’s just gone out into the wind and just stopped completely - for a lot of the sprinters here it’s a little bit different and of course it changes. It’s not often I get into the last kilometre with Robbie McEwen… in fact, never! It was a tough little race, early in the season.”

Indeed it was surprising to see Evans perform, even for the man himself.  He had been playing down his chances in the run up to the race and had been happy to bask in the shadow of Armstrong.  The results bumps the World Champion up to 7th overall but it is highly unlikely that he would be in contention come the final day on Sunday. Valverde fairs somewhat better and is up to 4th.

The leaders jersey still rests on the shoulders of Andre Greipel who capitalised on the first day win to  take stage 2 as well.
STAGE 3 RESULTS

1. Manuel Cardoso (POR|Footon-Servetto-Fuji)
2. Alejandro Valverde (ESP|Caisse D’Epargne)
3. Cadel Evans (AUS|BMC Racing Team)
4. Peter Sagan (SVK|Liquigas Doimo)
5. Mauro Finetto (ITA|Liquigas Doimo)
6. Michael Rogers (AUS|HTC-Columbia)
7. Luke Roberts (AUS|Milram)
8. Markus Fothen (GER|Milram)
9. Anthony Roux (FRA|Francaise des Jeux)
10. Eduard Vorganov (RUS|Team Katusha)

General classification after stage 3

1. Andre Greipel (GER|HTC-Columbia)
2. Greg Henderson (NZL|Sky)
3. Gert Steegmans (BEL|RadioShack)
4. Alejandro Valverde (ESP|Caisse D’Epargne)
5. Robbie McEwen (AUS|Katusha)
6. Jurgen Roelandts (BEL|Omega Pharma-Lotto)
7. Cadel Evans (AUS|BMC)
8. Andriy Grivko (UKR|Astana)
9. Graeme Brown (AUS|Rabobank)
10. Robbie Hunter (RSA|Garmin-Transitions)