Lotto's Leon van Bon won the third stage of Paris-Nice, a 229km ride between Chapelle-Saint-Ursin and Roanne on Tuesday, finishing just ahead of Gerolsteiner's Thomas Ziegler.

Van Bon and Ziegler slipped off the front of the field just before the 30km mark and built up a lead that peaked at more 13 minutes at one point. The two finished just ahead of the main field, nearly 200km after their initial escape. Quick Step's Tom Boonen won the field sprint 25 seconds after the two leaders crossed the line.

German CSC rider Jörg Jaksche retained the overall race lead with a six-second advantage over Gerolsteiner’s Davide Rebellin after the longest stage in the race, ridden with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees.

Van Bon pipped 23-year-old Ziegler, his breakaway partner for nearly 200km, at the line. Van Bon said he hadn't really started the day thinking that he was going to try a long breakaway in freezing conditions.

"Since it was cold I decided to warm up before the start of the stage," said 31-year-old van Bon, who has won the HEW-Cyclassics World Cup race and also two stages of the Tour de France - Pau in 1998 and Tours in 2000. "When Ziegler attacked I decided to go with him even though I didn't know exactly how it would pan out. I'm quite far back in the overall standings and so I didn't think they would be in a hurry to chase us down.

"I only started to believe we had a chance of taking it all the way once we built a 12-minute lead." The two riders' escape, which ended in a two-man sprint for the finish, gave race leader Jaksche a comfortable, but chilly, day in the saddle.

Jaksche, who recently moved teams to CSC after spending years as the sole German in the Spanish ONCE team, is now among the favorites to win the race which ends on Sunday.

However the 27-year-old Jaksche noted that he would have to keep an eye on Fassa Bortolo's Franck Vandenbroucke, and Rebellin.

"It was easier today despite the weather conditions," said Jaksche, who won the race prologue and also claimed victory in the Tour of the Mediterranean last month.

“We didn't have to work too much thanks to several teams who helped chase down the breakaway,” Jaksche said. “The conditions were quite difficult and the cold was biting. The team is confident, but we also know the hardest stages have yet to come. In the next stage it won't be up to us to attack."

"Our main rivals now have to be Vandenbroucke and Rebellin," he added.

Wednesday's undulating fourth stage is a 179 km ride from Roanne to Le-Puy-en-Velay.
(Copyright AFP2004)

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To see how today's stage unfolded, check out our Live Coverage of today's 229km stage, the longest in this year's edition of Paris-Nice.