Tour of Britain: Edoardo Zardini takes lead with stage 3 win as Bradley Wiggins finishes fifth
By Matt Westby
Last Updated: 10/09/14 10:18am
Italy’s Edoardo Zardini moved into the lead of the Tour of Britain after winning stage three's summit finish on The Tumble solo as Sir Bradley Wiggins recovered from being dropped to finish fifth.
Zardini initially formed part of a three-man attack at the bottom of the final climb but later moved into a solo lead with a second acceleration 1.3km out and could not be caught.
The Bardiani-CSF rider crossed a sun-drenched finish line in south Wales nine seconds ahead of second-placed Michal Kwiatkowski and 11 seconds in front of third-placed Nicolas Roche.
Wiggins was dropped from the main chase group just under 2km from the finish, but he was paced back into contention by Team Sky team-mate David Lopez and eventually crossed the line 14 seconds down on the winner.
After picking up ten bonus seconds for his victory, Zardini now opens up a 13-second lead at the top of the general classification over second-placed Kwiatkowski, with Roche 17 seconds down in third and Wiggins 24 seconds back in fifth.
'I just paced it'
Wiggins said: "I didn't pay any attention to them [the attackers]. I knew the climb and I knew it would come back on everyone at the end, as you saw - Roche and that really died. I have done this climb a few times and I knew it was tough so I just paced it A to B.
"It's all to play for. The time trial course [on stage 8a] is 8km, which is kind of like a pursuit course, which will favour me over other riders. Kwiatkowski is a good time-triallist - it's going to be tight. As long as it stands like this between now and then, we will have a good chance."
The 179.9km stage took the riders over three categorised climbs early in the day, before ending with the only summit finish of this year’s race, a steep category-one ascent measuring 4.1km in length.
A six-man breakaway made up of Mark McNally (An Post-Chain Reaction), Thomas Stewart (Madison Genesis), Sebastian Lander (BMC Racing), Michael Cuming (Rapha Condor JLT), Yanto Barker (Raleigh) and Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff-Saxo) was allowed to move clear and build up a gap of almost three minutes, but they could not hold off the chasing peloton and the last of them were caught with 6.9km to go.
Tinkoff-Saxo then led the main bunch up the approach slopes to The Tumble, but as soon as the climb started, Jack Bauer (Garmin-Sharp) surged out of the pack and both Zardini and Chris Juul-Jensen (Tinkoff-Saxo) followed.
Wiggins battles back
Zardini subsequently dropped both riders to lead solo, only to then be caught and overtaken by Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) after the Irishman had attacked out of the peloton with 2.2km to go and inadvertently caused a split in what was left of the chasing pack, with Wiggins becoming marooned in the second group.
Zardini managed to ride back to the tiring Roche and, sensing he was vulnerable, the Italian attacked and instantly opened up a big enough gap to guarantee him a second win of the season.
Wiggins, meanwhile, received help from team-mate Lopez, who was in the first chase group but slowed to wait for his leader, and the defending champion subsequently rallied well to reduce his losses and place himself firmly in general classification contention.
Zardini said afterwards: "I knew this climb had the reputation of being possibly the best in Britain and it lived up to its reputation. It very tough but, for me, it was a beautiful climb today.
"I was never in trouble when Nicolas came up to join me. After attacking I was pacing my effort because I knew there would be more to do. I let him go past and perhaps I kidded to be tired a little bit, but actually I was feeling fine all the time and soon decided to go back on the attack. I felt fantastic and was able to enjoy the moment and all the support of the fans at the top."
Stage three result
1 Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, 4:35:02
2 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step, +9
3 Nicolas Roche (Ire) Tinkoff-Saxo, +11
4 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC, +14
5 Sir Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky, same time
6 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar, st
7 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky, st
8 Sebastien Reichenbach (Swi) IAM Cycling, +16
9 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Movistar, st
10 Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura, st
General classification
1 Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani-CSF, 11:30:21
2 Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step, +13
3 Nicolas Roche (Ire) Tinkoff-Saxo, +17
4 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC, +21
5 Sir Bradley Wiggins (GB) Team Sky, +24
6 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky, same time
7 Ion Izagirre (Spa) Movistar, +26
8 Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura, st
9 Sebastien Reichenbach (Swi) IAM Cycling, st
10 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar, +37
