Boom sails to Tour of Britain lead

The Tour of Britain resumed Tuesday after its unscheduled day off with Lars Boom winning the third stage and taking the leader’s gold jersey from Mark Cavendish.

Monday’s second stage from Kendal to Blackpool was called off for safety reasons due to high winds in the north west of the country. The peloton was back in business for this 140km ride around Stoke-on-Trent won by Rabobank rider Boom.

The Dutch cyclist was followed across the line by his teammate Michael Matthews. Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas was third, with Cavendish, who won the opening stage, in fifth, slipping back to second in the overall standings, three seconds behind Boom.

Welshman Thomas is a further three seconds behind in third place heading into Wendesday’s fourth stage on his home turf from Welshpool to Caerphilly.

Team Sky’s Alex Dowsett made a solo break with 17km to go and had stayed out in front to hold onto a 20-second lead with 10km remaining. His advantage was slowly reeled in by the peloton to set up an uphill sprint to the finish line. Boom proved best equipped to steal the stage, despite Cavendish’s sprinting quality, just ahead of his teammate Matthews to claim the race lead with five stages remaining.

Stage

• 1. Lars BOOM, (NED) Rabobank Cycling Team, in 3:23:42
• 2. Michael MATTHEWS, (AUS) Rabobank Cycling Team, at s.t.
• 3. Geraint THOMAS, (GBR) Team Sky, at s.t.
• 4. Stephen CUMMINGS, (GBR) Team Sky, at s.t.
• 5. Mark Cavendish, (GBR) HTC-Highroad, at s.t.

GC

• 1. Lars Boom (NED/Rabobank) 8hrs 04mins 35secs,
• 2. Mark Cavendish (GBR/HTC) at 3secs,
• 3. Geraint Thomas (GBR/Sky) 6,
• 4. Michael Matthews (AUS/Rabobank) 7,
• 5. Boy Van Poppel (NED/UnitedHealthcare) 8,
• 6. Andrew Fenn (GBR/An Post) s.t.,
• 7. Ian Bibby (GBR/Motorpoint) 13,
• 8. Linus Gerdemann (GER/Leopard-Trek) s.t.,
• 9. Stephen Cummings (GBR/Sky) s.t.,
• 10. Daniel Lloyd (GBR/Garmin-Cervelo) s.t

Complete results