St. 3, American Tyler Farrar Celebrates 4th of July With First Tour Win

On America's Independence Day, Tyler Farrar gave his U.S.-based team something more to celebrate at this year's Tour de France, as the Washington-state native notched Garmin-Cervelo's second consecutive win while keeping current world-champion and teammate Thor Hushovd in the yellow leader's jersey.
     It was Farrar's first individual win in the world's biggest bike race, after multiple wins in the Tour of Spain and Tour of Italy. It was a poignant moment for the 27-year-old sprinter as he dedicated his win to close friend Wouter Weylandt, a Belgian rider Farrar had trained with extensively while coming into the pro circuit, who died after a crash in this past May's Tour of Italy.
     "I was saw Wouter's dad before the Tour and he said to win a stage for Wouter and I did," Farrar said, smiling with a crack of emotion in his voice.
     The win was poetic in more ways than one. Farrar had finally defeated rival Mark Cavendish, a British rider racing for the American HTC-Highroad team. Cavendish has amassed an amazing 15 stage wins at the Tour de France in his brief five-year pro career. Considered "the world's fastest man on two wheels", Cavendish got strung out of position on the final turn heading to the finish line and couldn't recover, finishing fifth in Monday's stage from Olonne-Sur-Mer to Redon.
     Farrar followed a perfect lead out from teammates Julian Dean and the yellow-clad Hushovd, giving the Garmin team reason to celebrate for the second day in a row. So far, the Colorado-based team has been the biggest story of the 2011 Tour de France.
     Tuesday's stage routes through the cycling-crazy land of Brittany, departing from the coastal town of Lorient to Mur-de-Bretagne, a 172-kilometer (106.6 mile) jaunt that will route inland to a steep two-kilometer uphill finish. The route is cut through a 300-million-year-old sandstone and slate valleys in an area reputed to be at one point within 100 kilometers of the the south pole as part of the Pangea.

Stage 4 Predictions: With rolling terrain and potential early crosswinds, coupled with the steep last kilometers, do not expect to see any sprinters hunting for a stage win Tuesday. More likely, you will see an emergence of several overall contenders hovering around ready to swoop in at the opportunity to grab the yellow fleece. American Chris Horner of Radio Shack, Stage one winner and the world's No. 1-ranked rider Philippe Gilbert, France's Thomas Voekler, Olympic gold-medalist Sammy Sanchez, and even the likes of three-time Tour winner Alberto Contador (looking to make up lost time) and Alexander Vinokourov could jump from the pack to win. All can accelerate violently on short steep climbs. The man that would seem to be most marked: Cadel Evans, only one second back from Hushovd, but powerful on shorter, steep climbs.  It wouldn't be all that shocking to see another American win for the second day in row with Horner on the top of the day's podium.

(NOTE: Steve Brunner is a staff member of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. He has covered 10 Tours de France with articles in USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and Boulder Daily Camera. HIs blog on the Tour de France will post daily.)