Italian Edoardo Zardini (Bardiani) surprised the overall favourites at the Tour of Britain by winning the key stage to The Tumble and snatching the race lead on Tuesday.
Zardini launched a late attack within the final three kilometres of the final climb to take the victory ahead of Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), who had moved around Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) in the finale.
Defending champion Bradley Wiggins (Sky) headed up the chase of Zardini and placed fifth, 14 seconds back.
Thanks to bonus seconds awarded for his win, Zardini sits atop the overall classification 13 seconds ahead of Kwiatkowski, and 17 seconds ahead of Roche in third. Wiggins is fifth overall at 24 seconds.
Overnight leader and stage two winner Mark Renshaw (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) finished just under seven minutes down on Zardini to relinquish the yellow jersey and hand team leadership duties over to Kwiatkowski. Earlier in the day, Mark Cavendish could be seen working hard for the team at the front of the peloton to pull in the day's escape group.
Ben Swift (Sky) hangs on to his lead in the points classification by one point ahead of Kwiatkowski. Mark McNally (An Post Sean Kelly) also retains his position in the King of the Mountains jersey, and Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani) stays in the sprints competition lead.
It's back into England for stage four on Wednesday, with a 184.6km undulating ride from Worcester to Bristol that takes in the Cotswolds.
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Result
Tour of Britain 2014, stage three: Newtown to the Tumble, 179.9km
1. Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani in 4-35-02
2. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 9 secs
3. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo at 11 secs
4. Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing at same time
5. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky at 14 secs
6. Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar
7. David Lopez (Spa) Sky at same time
8. Sebastian Reichenbach (Swi) IAM Cycling at 16 secs
9. Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar
10. Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura at same time
Overall classification after stage three
1. Edoardo Zardini (Ita) Bardiani in 11-30-21
2. Michal Kwiatkowski (Pol) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at 13 secs
3. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Tinkoff-Saxo at 17 secs
4. Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing at 21 secs
5. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky at 24 secs
6. David Lopez (Spa) Sky at 24 secs
7. Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar at 26 secs
8. Leopold Konig (Cze) NetApp-Endura at 26 secs
9. Sebastian Reichenbach (Swi) IAM Cycling at 26 secs
10. Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar at 37 secs
Eduardo Zardini on the podium after taking the overall lead on Stage 3 of the 2014 Tour of Britain
Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away, following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed.
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