Tour of Britain

HTC-Columbia back in control following Michael Albasini's stage win

HTC-Columbia may have suffered a rare bad day at the office on Sunday when race leader André Greipe missed the break but they roared back during tough wet conditions in mid-Wales on Monday to regain the overall lead through Switzerland's Michael Albasini

Albasini played an impressive solo-hand at the death to finish second to Team Sky's Greg Henderson on Sunday and went one better when he won the 149.7-kilometre third stage from Newtown to Swansea. The Swiss had been paced to the front by Tony Martin before finishing in style up the treacherous cobbles of Swansea's Constitution Hill that ramps up to a lung-bursting 25 per cent gradient in places.

His win also earned a time bonus which resulted in him taking the overall lead in the general classification.

"I felt really good and we decided that we were going to try to make the race really hard and see what happened," said Albasini after the win.

"Tony and I went full gas on the second last climb which was quite a long way from the finish and we caught a leading group with about 40 kilometres to go.

"Then on that last hard climb we worked really hard and I could break away. I just went like crazy and at the top there was nobody else there. With just one kilometre to go, I knew I had a good chance. Now we've got the lead we're going to see if we can keep this jersey all the way to the race finish in London."

Brian Holm, directeur sportif at HTC-Columbia, was delighted with how his team responded: "We decided to try and retake control of the race. So when we got to the second last ascent, Tony and Michael really went for it.

"Then Tony did a brilliant job keeping our rivals from catching the front group with him and Michael by driving all out. He was like a locomotive. It's been fun, and it's been a good day for our guys. The pressure was off for the team after André won that opening stage, but we lost the lead on the second stage and we wanted it back."

All of which resulted in a disappointing day for Team Sky who had started the day with Henderson in the leader's yellow jersey after his stage win in Stoke. In horrible conditions over rugged Welsh terrain Henderson could not keep in touch despite Bradley Wiggins dropping back from the lead group to try and assist.

The Tour of Britain continues on Tuesday with the 171.3km stage four from Minehead to Teignmouth.

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