American Talansky takes stage and yellow jersey

American rider Andrew Talansky of the Garmin team won the third stage of the Paris-Nice on Wednesday and took the overall lead after a six-man breakaway held off the peloton following 170.5km between Chatel-Guyon and Brioude. The 24-year-old Miami native edged out escape partners Davide Malacarne of Italy and Spaniard Gorka Izagirre on a wet afternoon as he picked up his biggest career win and also took the overall lead. Spaniard David Lopez, Australia's Richie Porte and French rider Romain Bardet also came home with the same time while seventh placed Andriy Grivko of the Ukraine is now second overall at 3secs. Malacarne moves third overall on the same time with Sylvain Chavanel of France a further second adrift. Italy's Elia Viviani, who began the stage in the leader's yellow jersey, was well distanced and lost nearly three minutes on a route unsuited to his sprinting talents. From: AFP