The ‘race to the sun’ continued yesterday with Floyd Landis (Phonak) taking the spotlight off wonder boy Tom Boonen as he took over the overall Paris-Nice lead. As for our British Boys, well Roger Hammond is hanging in there in the points category but Bradley Wiggins had a bit of a bad day at the office yesterday leaving him lingering 116th in the general classification.

Along with Spain’s Patxi Vila, Landis broke away at the category one Croix de Chaubouret with around 20km of the 168.5km St Etienne stage to go. By all accounts Landis was storming.

Landis missed out on the stage win as Vila put in a strong sprint effort, placing the Phonax rider in second and gaining him his first professional win. However it was Landis who took the yellow jersey after the third stage putting nine-seconds between him and Lampre’s Vila.

Elsewhere in the field, Boonen was nowhere to be seen yesterday, resulting in the loss of his overall lead. After three stages, Great Britain’s Roger Hammond is sitting in 73rd in the general classifications and Wiggins has slipped down in the ranks after a number of setbacks including a nasty stack on stage 2.

Paris-Nice website follow the stages live.