Tour de France : Da Silva Wins 3rd Stage; Maechler Takes Lead

Portugal’s Acacio da Silva of the Kas team and Switzerland’s Erich Maechler broke from the pack with 9.3 miles remaining Saturday, and da Silva outdueled Maechler to win the 136-mile third stage of the 74th Tour de France bicycle race.

Maechler, winner of the Milan-San Remo race in April, took the overall lead in the 26-day event as the 205-man pack failed to react to the breakaway with 9.3 miles remaining and finished 5 minutes 20 seconds behind.

Switzerland’s Joerg Mueller of the PDM team and Norway’s Dag-Otto Lauritzen of the 7-Eleven team fell short in a bid to catch da Silva and Maechler, finishing several seconds behind.

A 12-man pursuit group, led by Frenchman Jean-Claude Lecler, came in 35 seconds later.

All the race favorites, including Irishmen Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly and Colombia’s Luis Herrera, finished in the pack.

Maechler, a teammate of Roche with Carrera, took the race leader’s yellow jersey away from Poland’s Lech Piasecki of the Del Tongo team. Piasecki led after the prologue and first two stages Wednesday and Thursday in West Berlin, where the race was started as part of the city’s 750th anniversary.

The race will reach France today after the 49-mile fourth stage to Pforzheim and the 70-mile fifth stage in the afternoon to Strasbourg.

Saturday’s flat stage from Karlsruhe, which followed an off day Friday, was run in sunshine and intense heat and was marked by a fast pace on the bonus sprints.