Alessandro Petacchi claimed his second stage victory at Bayern Rundfahrt as stage three culminated in a bunch sprint.
Rogers safely retains yellow for Team Sky
Alessandro Petacchi claimed his second stage victory at Bayern Rundfahrt as stage three culminated in a bunch sprint.
The Italian followed up his win on Wednesday by holding off Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-BigMat) and John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) into Treuchtlingen.
Finishing safely in the bunch Michael Rogers maintained his race lead as Team Sky helped control proceedings during the 196.4-kilometre stage.
The team combined with interested sprinters’ teams to tear into the advantage of a four-man escape group in the final kilometres to ensure a bunch sprint.
The result allowed Rogers to retain yellow heading into Saturday’s 26.4km time trial by the slender margin of five seconds following his heroic stage win on stage two.
Sprint test
Four German Continental riders headed clear inside the opening 10km with Team Sky happy to let the break spin out to 9:35 before taking to the front following the tough opening climb at Ronsberg/Wolfs.
On the long descent down into Donauworth, Orica-GreenEDGE and Lampre-ISD were also willing to pitch in with an eye on securing a second bunch sprint in the race
The break held an advantage of two minutes heading into the finishing circuits in Treuchtlingen but were always up against it as the WorldTour squads seized control with Petacchi the first to profit, denying Degenkolb the chance to win on his home roads.
The five-day race continues into the weekend with a likely decisive time trial in Freuchtwangen.
