Phenomenal is an understatement. What he did Peter Sagan on the final stretch of Boulogne-sur-Mer, home of the third stage of the Tour, is pure acrobatics and unparalleled power. It's amazing how this Slovakian just 22 years old - he turned them on January 20th - manages to make even the most difficult athletic gestures seem simple. His second victory in the Tour is one that will remain for a long time in the memory of those who lived it live.
It is the synthesis of impressive strength and an uncommon ability to dominate the bike, typical of the rider who has been in cyclocross: in everyone's eyes remained the furious outburst with which Sagan managed to squeeze out of the traffic in the last 100 metres taking off and with momentum the curve that led to the short final straight, a lunge so imperious as to create a vacuum between him and the others, a void so reassuring as to allow him to cross the finish line dancing on his bike as if he were at the end of a picnic out of town.
Liquigas, which came to the Tour betting on Vicenzo Nibali (today tenth) for the final victory with the precious help of Ivan Basso, finds the rider at home he has all the qualities to dominate the world cycling scene in the coming years. A cycling that never more than in these times in which doping upsets the arrival orders too often (the last stop concerns Filippo Pozzato) needs to find new unblemished champions. And Sagan is the big promise. A phenomenon that today enjoyed putting them in line, spacing them by a second, rivals such as Boasson Hagen, Velits and above all Cancellara, which on arrivals such as that of Boulogne-sur-Mer has created his reputation as a great finisseur.
The Swiss man keeps the yellow jersey with an unchanged gap of 7” on Bradley Wiggins, who did not participate in the final rush because he was involved in a fall less than 500 meters from the finish line. The Englishman arrived about forty seconds late, but the jury, as required by the Tour regulations for non-mountain stages, neutralized all the gaps of the riders delayed for the final carom.
Always for a fall, about 50 km from the finish, the Belorussian of Sky retired, Kanstantsin Sivtsov, a man Wiggins counted on a lot for mountain stages. Fourth stage tomorrow: we start from Abbeville, near the famous Baie de la Somme where you can admire the white seals, and you arrive in Rouen after 214,5 km of racing: there is a small snag in the final, but the fraction seems to sprinters. And for a Tour that wants to showcase its brands, the most popular name is that of Mark Cavendish.
