Stage 3

The road

At the start

Seven sectors of pavé to Arenberg

Sylvain Chavanel leads the Tour by 2:57 after his escape to Spa, with Cancellara second and Contador seventh at 3:24. Christian Vande Velde and Niki Terpstra did not start after yesterday's crashes. Today the Tour touches the cobbles for the first time since 2004: 13.2 kilometres of pavé in seven sectors, the last four in France, the meanest of them ten kilometres from a finish at the gates of the Arenberg forest.

How it was won

1. 154 km to go

   Into the pavé

   Thirteen kilometres of cobbles in seven sections, the last four in France, and the Tour has not touched them for six years. Chavanel's maillot jaune lasts as far as his first mechanical; he will need two bike changes before the day is out.

2. 231 km to go

   Armstrong punctures

   A puncture at the worst possible moment leaves the seven-time winner alone in the dust behind the team cars, fighting through French crowds on his own while the race he came back for rides away from him.

3. 310 km to go

   Hesjedal onto the last sector

   Ryder Hesjedal hits the final section of pavé with ten kilometres to go and twenty seconds in hand, riding for a Garmin team that has already lost Vande Velde and is about to lose more.

4. 47 km to go

   Caught at six and a half

   Hesjedal is swallowed with 6.5 kilometres left and the day becomes arithmetic: an elite selection at the front, Evans and Thomas driving it, and everybody behind counting what the cobbles have cost them.

5. 52 km to go

   Vinokourov drives, Contador is gapped

   In the last kilometres Vinokourov goes to the front for Astana and rides so hard that his own leader cannot hold the wheel. Contador loses contact, and a few seconds, to his own team.

6. 6At the line

   Hushovd at the gates of Arenberg

   Thor Hushovd, twice a podium finisher at Paris-Roubaix, has had the armchair ride of his life and takes the sprint at the gates of the Arenberg forest from Geraint Thomas and the world champion Cadel Evans. Chavanel's yellow jersey goes back to Cancellara. Armstrong, Basso and Sastre have all lost time they will not find; Contador and Andy Schleck, the two least suited to this road, have not.

The result