racing cyclist mows down a helper

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Bradley still looking good in yellow.

QUOTE:
Movistar's Alejandro Valverde held on by less than half a wheel's
width to survive a late charge from Simon Gerrans of GreenEdge, the
man who had narrowly beaten him to the Santos Tour Down Under title in
January, to win Stage 3 of Paris-Nice on the Catgeory 3 climb to Le
Lac de Vassivière this afternoon.Gianni Meersman of Lotto-Belisol
finished third, while Team Sky's Bradley Wiggins rolled over safely in
the group in 20th place and on the same time to retain the race
leader's yellow jersey.

Valverde had started the morning 11th overall, his presence in the 21-
man break that contested yesterday's finale allowing him to jump up
the general classification following a fairly lacklustre performance
in Sunday's opening time trial that had left him in 41st position, a
full half-minute down on the leaders.

The 10-second bonus he gets for winning today's stage takes him to
sixth overall and just 20 seconds down on Wiggins, with Thursday's
tough finish in Mende looking tailor-made for the Spaniard.

It's the 31-year-old former world number one's third victory since
returning to the sport at the start of January following a two-year
ban imposed as a result of his links to Operacion Puerto. The first of
those, in his debut race for Movistar, the Tour Down Under, also came
at the expense of Gerrans on an uphill finish on Old Willunga Hill.

Today's scenario was different to that two-man battle back in January,
however, with Valverde, whose Movistar team had moved to the front as
the main bunch headed under the flamme rouge, looking set to win with
relative ease after countering the attack of compatriot Luis Leon
Sanchez of Rabobank, a former winner of Paris-Nice.

But Gerrans, whose Tour Down Under overall victory had come just a
fortnight after he began his season with the new Australian outfit by
taking the national road championship, burst from the pack with a late
surge that very nearly had Valverde beaten.

Earlier in the 194km stage from Vierzon, which had begun without
RadioShack-Nissan's Andy Schleck, who had withdrawn citing a stomach
upset, and GreenEdge's Aidis Kruopis, a three man breakaway had
managed to escape, comprising Michael Morkov of Saxo Bank, Saur-
Sojasun's Jimmy Engoulvent and Roy Curvers of Project 1t4i.

At one point, that trio had a lead of nearly five minutes but as the
race headed into the final 30 kilometres, the gap was tumbling with
Team Sky driving the peloton. Movistar, working for Valverde who had
suffered a puncture, took up the reins and the final escapee,
Egoulvent, was swept up with 7 kilometres left shortly after taking
the day's intermediate sprint. Team Sky's Geraint Thomas, looking to
prevent any of Wiggis' rivals from getting bonus seconds, was the
second man over.

With a little over 3 kilometres left on the final Category 3 climb to
the finish, Vaconsoleil-DCM's Sergey Lagutin launched a solo bid for
glory, but Team Sky kept a watchful eye on the Uzbek national
champion, as well as on Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Levi Leipheimer and
Sylvain Chavanel, two of the biggest threats to Wiggins in the
overall.

Movistar then made their move to position Valverde perfectly for him
to repeat the success of Spanish legend Miguel Indurain, who won his
final Tour de France stage here in 1995.

After his victory, Valverde said: "I really must thank my team-mates
who did a phenomenal job all day and in the finale. I’m glad to have
won this because it was a great fight. Of course I think about final
victory but for now, I’m just glad I won this. I was in the front
group yesterday and my sensations since the start have been great.
We’ll see."

Wiggins, meanwhile, reflected on the difficulty Team Sky has in
defending what is a narrow lead, particularly in a race that, unlike
the Tour de France, awards bonus seconds at stage finishes. “It was
cold out there, a lot of guys were struggling. It’s another day down.
I’m just looking to stay safe and keep the guys like Levi around me.
Alejandro won today and he is getting closer too.

"The next couple of days we’re going to try and control as best as
possible. But six seconds is hard to defend and there is a strong
possibility that we can lose the jersey with a bonification here or
there. If we can stay in touch until the Col d’Eze [the individual
time trial that brongs the race to a close on Suday], we can play it
cool.”

http://road.cc/content/news/54011-pa...-wiggins-keeps

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Simon Mason