Freire claims win number two

It was 36-year-old Freire's second win of the season. He enjoyed his first win of 2012 during stage four of the Tour Down Under.

The evergreen Katusha sprinter out paced Team NetApp's Daniel Schorn, 2nd, and Rabobank's and Australia's Michael Matthews to prove his TDU win was no fluke.

Movistar's Valverde retained his three-second lead over Cofidis' Rein Taaramae after the stage. With Jerome Coppel eight second back in third.

Stage 3

1      Óscar Freire (Spa) Katusha Team      3:41:55      
2     Daniel Schorn (Aut) Team NetApp           
3     Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team           
4     Marco Marcato (Ita) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team           
5     Simon Geschke (Ger) Project 1t4i           
6     Pim Ligthart (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team           
7     Stephane Poulhies (Fra) Saur - Sojasun           
8     Daniele Bennati (Ita) RadioShack-Nissan           
9     Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne           
10     Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team     

General Classification

1      Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team      12:53:53       
2     Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne     0:00:03      
3     Jerome Coppel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun     0:00:08      
4     Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team     0:00:14      
5     Sergey Lagutin (Uzb) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team     0:00:15      
6     Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Project 1t4i     0:00:18      
7     Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan     0:00:22      
8     Matthias Brandle (Aut) Team NetApp     0:00:23      
9     Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan     0:00:26      
10     Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi     0:00:27