AJACCIO, France (AP) — Belgian rider Jan Bakelants defends the yellow jersey for the first time as Monday’s hilly third stage of the Tour de France begins.
The 27-year-old former bioscience engineering student withstood a late charge to win the first stage of his injury-plagued career in stage 2 on Sunday and he is one second ahead of veteran British rider David Millar and a clutch of others in the overall standings.
Monday’s 145.5-kilometer (90-mile) trek starts from Ajaccio, where French emperor and military mastermind Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769, and ends in Calvi after four moderate climbs have tested the legs of the peloton.
It is the last of the trio of Coriscan stages before the race heads back to mainland France for Tuesday’s team time trial in Nice.
