Sagan rules 3rd stage as Tour heads home

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, France: Flapping his arms in victory, Peter Sagan of Slovakia won a crash-marred third stage of the Tour de France as the race came home from Belgium yesterday.
Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland remained the overall leader for a fourth straight day after the 197-kilometer trek from Orchies along five small-scale climbs to an uphill finish in the fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Sagan won his second stage in his debut Tour by bolting out of the splintered pack with less than 300 meters left. He pumped his arms as he crossed the finish, several lengths — and 1 second — ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway in second and fellow Slovak Peter Velits in third.
Overall, Cancellara leads Bradley Wiggins of Britain in second and Sylvain Chavanel of France in third, both seven seconds back. Defending champ Cadel Evans climbed from eighth to seventh place, 17 seconds behind.
With the pack jostling to get up front for five small climbs near the finish, there were at least four crashes, including one within the last kilometer. Several riders also had mechanical troubles or flat tires.
“It was really hard ... the group was nervous, everyone wanted to be up front, there were a lot of crashes,” Sagan told France-2 television. “It was a very dangerous stage.”
Sagan said his victory gesture — in which he pumped his arms as a runner might — was a nod to the title character in the film “Forrest Gump.”
On the trek toward the English Channel, five breakaway riders got out early through northern France’s wheat fields and former steel industry hubs, and through medieval villages like Isbergues — named for a sister of Charlemagne who, legend has it, could cure skin and eye illnesses.
With about 50 kilometers to go, several riders crashed in a flat portion of road through a wheatfield in a slight turn.
Team Sky’s Kanstantsin Sivtsov, of Belarus, didn’t immediately get up and became the first competitor to drop out of this year’s 99th edition of cycling’s showcase race.
Some 20 kilometers later, another crash sent riders flying off the shoulder of the road on both sides — and one flew into a wire fence. Spain’s Jose Joaquin Rojas of Movistar clambered into an ambulance and dropped out too, according to race organizers. The spill split the pack into mini-bunches, and the front group overtook the breakaway riders.
US sprint specialist Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Sharp went down in the first crash and was delayed in the second, and he and several teammates rallied together to join back up with the main pack.
Wednesday’s fourth stage takes riders on another bumpy ride along several hills, a 214.5-kilometer jaunt from Abbeville to Rouen in the heart of Normandy.