Tour de France : Davis Phinney Sprints to Victory in Third Stage

In a photo finish, American Davis Phinney Sunday nosed out Dutchman Henk Boeve and Switzerland’s Robert Dill-Bundi to win the 133-mile third stage of the 73rd Tour de France.

Phinney, a 27-year-old sprinter on the U.S.-based 7-Eleven team, was part of a 12-man group led by Systeme-U’s Charly Mottet and Laurent Biondi to escape the pack midway through the mainly flat stage.

He won the final sprint and the day’s race with a time of 5 hours, 45 minutes, 31 seconds. Boeve was second, Dill-Bundi third, Frenchman Charly Mottet fourth and Holland’s Willem Van Eynde fifth, all in the same time.

Frenchmen Thierry Marie kept the overall leader’s yellow jersey for the third consecutive day, a fraction of a second ahead of Mottet, his Systeme-U teammate.

Systeme-U kept nine riders in the top 10 overall placings, including two-time Tour champion Laurent Fignon in fourth place at four seconds off the lead.

Phinney, a bronze medalist in the team-time trial at the 1984 Olympics, was modest about his victory.

“I still don’t believe it. Anyway, this last sprint was merely a formality, because there were no good sprinters in the escape group,” Phinney said.

The flat stage between Levallois-Perret to Lievin began in pouring rain but dried up in time to let Mottet and Laurent Biondi lead an escape by 12 riders that eventually dwindled to nine.

The 197 riders left from an original start list of 210 will tackle the 151-mile fourth stage between Lievin and Evreux in Normandy today.

The 23-stage race ends July 27.