The longest stage in the history of the Milenio Titan Desert by Gaes carried today the 371 participants who have taken the start at Rissani to the town of Tourza, near the city of Alnif. The front group has gone very quiet and until kilometer 63 have been a big group in front of the group. The overall leader the Portuguese Luis Leao Pinto had warned before the start that today was a day to be very calm and not squeeze much the pace in the first few miles. Said and done, with the favorites in front, the peloton remained together throughout the first half of the race with a group of twenty participants who kept a steady pace of 30km/h.
The first to launch an attack was Juan Pedro Trujillo, Wilf Wild Trek Team Pro, in the 63 km pulled the rhythm and alone has run away getting a two and a half minutes over the chasing pack to the passage of CP2 at kilometer 90. Thereafter, and in a completely flat tracks and easy to roll Roberto Heras, Luis Leao Pinto, Milton Ramos and Jose Antonio Benitez have begun to tighten the pace and take relays to reach Trujillo. At that time the speed of the pursuers reached points of 45km / h chasing Trujillo at kilometer 102.
Shortly after hunting down Trujillo, Roberto Heras has had a problem with one of the pedals and was forced to stop. With the help of Raul Hernandez, teammate and mechanic in the GAES ELITE 1, has managed to solve the problem and started to pull to reach the leading group. In CP3, the spaniard was losing about 2 minutes behind the leading group but imposed an hellish pace to keep his winning chances despite this problem.
About kilometer 130, Roberto Heras has chased the leading group and he and Pinto have started to set the pace at the top to reach the finish. In the big group José Alberto Benitez has been the only one able to follow and all three have tightened the teeth in a final sprint over the final meters. Pinto has taken the victory with Heras in second and third Benitez.
Luis Leao Pinto maintains his leader jersey with just one second ahead of Roberto Heras and Jose Manuel Benitez is third at 23 minutes. Tomorrow is the big mountain day with a distance of 101km and over 2000m of cumulative positive height difference that take place in the first 60km special, with a very steep and technical terrain that could swing the balance in the intense struggle between Heras and Pinto.
Tómas Vokrouhlik, winner of yesterday's stage, had a puncture and losing is place in the podium obtained yesterday in general. The big absent of the day has been Marc Coma, who after a spectacular performance in the first stage left yesterday after reaching the finish.
After the arrival Pinto claimed: "Roberto pedal was out and people have taken the opportunity to try to win but Roberto is strong and has survived." and acknowledged that he did not want to force the pace after the technical problem of Roberto "It does not seems fair to pull and also Roberto never do that, because neither would I like he do it to me. This can occur in stages and what I want is to make it or I win in stages not by technical problems."
Roberto Heras for his part thanked the finish line in the behavior of Pinto "Luis is very honorable and honest and knew that he would not shoot."
Rebecca Rusch has imposed again authority on the stage and continues to accumulate victories. Three of three for the American who commands the classification alone female but crossed the Ecuador of the race is not given yet winning "Under these conditions, anything can happen at any time, look what happened to me last year in the last three days ... the race is long, and still many days left until the finish line can not declare victory "
RESULTS STAGE 3: Rissani – Tourza
1.- Luís Leao Pinto - ESTEVE 1 - 4:32:00
2.- Roberto Heras - GAES ELITE 1 - 4:32:00 +00:00
3.- José Alberto Benítez - TEAM GO FIT DEPORINTER - 4:32:01 +00:01
4.- Milton Ramos - LIDER 1 - 4:32:16 +00:16
5.- Martin Horak - BMC SAVO RACING - 4:34:47 +02:47
6.- Juan Pedro Trujillo - WILD WOLF TREK PRO RACING - 4:38:34 +06:34
7.- Marzio Deho - TEAM OLYMPIA - 4:39:43 +07:43
8.- Raúl Hernández - GAES ELITE 1 - 4:42:40 +10:40
9.- Israel Núñez - LIDER 1 - 4:42:40 +10:40
10.- Antonio Ortíz - 4:42:41 + 10:41
OVERALL STANDINGS AFTER STAGE 3
1.- Luís Leao Pinto - ESTEVE 1 - 10:33:53
2.- Roberto Heras - GAES ELITE 1 - 10:33:54 +00:01
3.- José Alberto Benítez - TEAM GO FIT DEPORINTER - 10:57:25 +23:32
4.- Milton Ramos - LIDER 1 - 10:59:38 +25:45
5.- Martin Horak - BMC SAVO RACING - 11:00:20 +26:27
