Stage 3 NICE>SISTERON - Caleb Opens His Account.

Stage three and the weather looked ominous as the peloton bid farewell to Nice and headed inland toward Sisteron.

Sure enough rain and showers rolled in and you just knew riders were thinking, "Oh no, not again". Mattie was worried about the puddles and warned that, "The danger of a puddle is that you don't know what's at the bottom of it". Yes, like sea monsters.

Back in the Plat du Tour kitchen Guillaume Brahimi was making Pissaladière with white anchovy and olive, a type of French pizza featuring caramalised onions instead of tomato. French pizza you say? Why not? The Hawaiians have been having a crack at it for years.

Pretty much from the start Jerome Cousin made a break for it only to sit out in front on his lonesome for most of the race.

Anthony Perez along with Benoit Cosnefroy followed Cousin. Perez was determined to pick up KOM points and out sprinted Cosnefroy on the first two climbs. Perez had the polka dot jersey virtually on his shoulders and looked assured if he could make it to Sisteron.

But the polka dot jersey was not to be for Perez having to abandon after a puncture then crashing into his own team car on the descent of the Col de Leque. That was really bad luck for Perez but fortunate for Cosnefroy who kept the lead in the KOM competition.

For the most part the peloton was content to ride according to Robbie on, “A slow burn on the slow cooker”. After two demanding opening stages who could blame them for getting a little recovery, perhaps take in some of the gob smacking rocky scenery?

Eventually the rain and showers cleared out and rain capes and arm warmers were abandoned for sun screen.

The peloton seemed to settle into a trance like rhythm as Cousin continued on his own up the road. Don’t know about you but Cousin had a bit of ‘The Flying Doormat’ look about him reminiscent of Australian Rules Football Carlton stalwart Bruce Doull.

Doull made headbands a thing before headbands were a thing.

Mattie thought that as the peloton got closer he could sense, “A flurry of activity behind Cousin”. The rest of us thought the only flurry of activity behind Cousin was his mullet.

So far we haven’t seen a lot of field art, there was a reasonable attempt at a socially distanced bike wheel formation but that was not in keeping with this year's theme, 'Farmers Love the Tour'. Expect to see a lot of tractor displays in the coming weeks.

Back in the pretend caravan of commentary Robbie seemed a little restless and threw a few barbs at Mattie about his ‘Lego hair’ and ‘Agassi’ tennis headband. Hey Robbie, what happened to the Keeno punching bag you made on stage one?

Bridie noted that the moto camera tended to linger on the legs of the riders and thought there was a bit of ‘calf envy’ going on. The Couch Peloton was experiencing calf envy of a different kind by the noticeable lack of vache in the area.

The scenery certainly made up for the lack of cows and what was it with all those churches and chapels built in ridiculously high places? Getting closer to God or was it a dare?

Troll DJ was still dreaming about Nice and couldn’t resist but bringing out the Miami Vice theme which, come to think of it, didn’t make sense as Miami is thousands of miles away.

As thee peloton headed closer to Sisteron it was time to wake from the slumber and for the sprint trains to get organised for the run to the line.

It’s fascinating and scary to watch as the pace quickens and the lead out men pilot there fast lads through the chaos.

In the final couple of hundred metres it was game on and somehow Aussie Caleb Ewan squeezed through the spokes to take a thrilling victory.

Lets hope this win is the start of many more at this year’s Tour.