The bunch sprints which have decided the first three stages of the Tour are not for the fainthearted, but they are clearly to the liking of the small group of Australians in the race.
After finishing third on Sunday and second on Monday, Robbie McEwen finally earned the win he had been looking for here yesterday, with his compatriots Baden Cooke and Stuart O'Grady close behind again, as they were in Luxembourg and Sarrebruck.
Yesterday McEwen was asked why he, Cooke and O'Grady are making such an impact. He muttered that they all share a common background in track racing, which develops pedalling speed, and thus makes it more likely that a rider will become a sprinter, before coming up with something more like the real answer: "We try harder."
O'Grady's 10th place yesterday typified the impact the Australians have made on the Tour in the 21 years since Phil Anderson gave the country their first yellow jersey.
O'Grady had spent much of the stage being pushed by his Credit Agricole team-mates, yellow-faced, and clearly unable to pedal properly due to an attack of tachycardia, when the heart beats at a dangerously elevated rate.
His pulse reached 225 beats per minute, enough to give an unhealthy person a heart attack, so it would have been understandable if he had sat tight at the end.
Instead, he was actively seeking points in pursuit of the green jersey awarded to the best sprinter, the prize which so narrowly eluded him last year.
The diminutive McEwen punches above his weight as well. He is a puckish, straight-talking young man from Brisbane whose unwillingness to mince his words has resulted in friction with his team managers.
Yesterday, he did more than merely mouth the usual platitudes about "dreams coming true" after his win.
Instead, he took the opportunity to call upon his current team management at Lotto-Adecco to inform their riders about the contractual position arising from a pending merger with the Domo squad to form a Belgian super-team.
"We know less about the situation than the journalists do. A number of riders have been told that contracts will be respected, but through the media we've been told we're free. It needs to be clarified."
Next on McEwen's list were the organisers of the Tour. Asked why he had veered from his line in the final metres yesterday, he explained that it was because he was being troubled by the vast green cardboard hands that are given to spectators by the PMU betting company, who are, ironically, the sponsors of the green jersey worn by the best sprinter.
"There were people waving them over the barriers and I was getting hit so I moved over. I'd like the organisers to do something about it. We're doing 45mph and people are putting things in our faces. It's really dangerous."
In this case, victory was not just better than a slap in the face, but actually included several slaps in the face.
Close behind McEwen yesterday was Erik Zabel of Germany, who finally managed to take the yellow jersey from the young Swiss Rubens Bertogliati. It was a Pyrrhic victory, however: in today's team time trial Lance Armstrong and his potential rivals will make the running, and Zabel's Telekom squad will struggle to defend his lead.
Recently the Spaniards of ONCE have performed best in this test of collective strength, winning in 2000 and taking second last year to O'Grady's Credit Agricole. ONCE include two of Armstrong's potential challengers in Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano and Joseba Beloki, and if they are to threaten Armstrong at all in the next two weeks, they will have to beat him soundly today.
If O'Grady's men repeat their win of last year, it will be something of a miracle. On stage one, their leader, Christophe Moreau of France, crashed twice, and on stage two, their Norwegian, Thor Hushovd, was forced to stop repeatedly in the final kilometres due to cramps. It does not bode well.
The forecast is for rainy conditions similar to those of last year, when two of Armstrong's US Postal Service team-mates, Christian van de Velde and Roberto Heras, collided and fell off, which meant the entire team had to wait while they were scraped off the tarmac.
That makes it doubly important for the Postmen to deliver, or questions will be asked.
Guardian Service
Third Stage (174.5-kms between Metz and Reims): 1. Robbie McEwen (Australia) Lotto Adecco 4 hours 13 minutes 37 seconds 2. Erik Zabel (Germany) Deutsche Telekom 3. Baden Cooke (Australia) FDJeux.com 4. Andrej Hauptmann (Slovenia) Tacconi 5. Fabio Baldato (Italy) Fassa Bortolo 6. Paolo Bossoni (Italy) Tacconi Sports 7. Jaan Kirsipuu (Estonia) AG2r Prevoyance 8. Francois Simon (France) Bonjour 9. Jan Svorada (Czech Republic) Lampre-Daikin 10. Stuart O'Grady (Australia) Credit Agricole
Overall: 1. Erik Zabel (Germany) Telekom Thirteen 31 minutes and 35 seconds 2. Robbie McEwen (Australia) Lotto Adecco 8 secs 3. Rubens Bertogliati (Switzerland) Lampre Daikin 14 4. Laurent Jalabert (France) CSC-Tiscali 17 5. Lance Armstrong (U.S.) U.S. Postal same time 6. Raimondas Rumsas (Lithuania) Lampre Daikin 20 7. Santiago Botero (Colombia) Kelme 21 8. David Millar (Britain) Cofidis 22 9. Laurent Brochard (France) Jean Delatour 23 10. Oscar Freire (Spain) Mapei 25
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