Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Cycling Pro: Stewart finishes 3rd across windy seawall finish on crash-filled third stage at the Tour de Korea

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Parent Category: Cycling Pro Road & Mtb

Category: News Cycling Pro Road & Mtb 2011

Published on Sunday, 17 April 2011 19:55

Written by Luca Salvatelli

Team Type 1 - sanofi-aventis rider Scott Stewart emerged from a shattered peloton on Sunday to finish 3rd on the 203km third stage of the Tour de Korea.

Stewart, from Oxford, Michigan, found himself in the final breakaway of the day as the race entered the Saemangeum seawall, a 33-kilometer-long man-made dyke along the Yellow Sea

"The route was hilly and with a lot of wind. That made for a very tense 200k. Going across the seawall I got into a group of 10-15 guys that included the 4th place rider on general classification. We never had more than 45 seconds on the group, but held out until the end," Stewart said.

Team Type 1 - sanofi-aventis rider Will Dugan, who was in second place overall at the beginning of the stage, fell to third as Austrian rider Markus Eibegger of the Iran-based squad Tabriz Petrochemical moved up from fourth.

"The last 40k on the sea wall, we knew that the whole stage would be won there. Up until then we had been chasing down breaks all day, with some help from the Hong Kong team. Ben King crashed on a descent and broke his bike, but we got him back up on a spare and he finished in the group," said Director Sportif Mike Carter.

"There were splits on the seawall, and Scott was in the front when it happened. 17 guys with Eibegger, who was in the break on stage 1. The Chinese National Champion won the stage, with Dugan, Alessandro Bazzana, Aleksei Shmidt and King 23 seconds back," Carter said.

Team Type 1 - sanofi-aventis rider Ben King said he crashed after 70k on the stage.

"Another rider went down and took me with him on a descent. I’m cut up all over and I broke my bike. But I finished in what was left of the peloton. There were a lot of crashes today, and the wind on top of the hills really broke everything up," King said.

Team Type 1 - sanofi-aventis rider Joe Eldridge did not start stage three in Gangjin, after finishing Saturday’s stage two outside the time cut.