With breakthrough performances in last year's Tour de Romandie and Vuelta a Espana, young American (Andrew Talansky) entered this year's Paris-Nice as a dangerous outsider. With today's stage win and overall lead, he has his sights set on overall victory.

Garmin-Sharp put some pressure on their young GC talent Andrew Talansky when they entered this year's Paris-Nice with one sole objective: a high overall placing for the American. Today he proved to his team that their decision was a wise one with an impressive stage victory on the third stage.

Talansky was happy to repay the team for its confidence.

"This is really important for me and for the team because Garmin Sharp sent a whole team here to help me for the overall," Talansky explained. "So to win a stage here and in the end the jersey, I think it's a big step for me in my own career. I think it's pretty logical, you get better every year. It's a matter of time really for me to win."

The descent as a springboard

Talansky launched his attack on the treacherous and wet descent from the day's final climb inside the final 15 kilometers of the stage. With GC rival Richie Porte (Team Sky) he created a gap in pursuit of a 5-man front group containing David Lopez (Team Sky). Lopez fell back to bring his team captain to front, and with this accomplished the group sped towards the finish line.

Talansky was impressed by Lopez' performance.

"I took the fifth wheel behind the Sky," he explained of the descent. "It's not so much that it was crazy, it just takes one guy to crash or get scared, and there's a gap. There was a gap, and I was with Richie Porte and David Lopez Garcia, and Sky rode for the overall, too. David Lopez rode five out of ten kilometres in the lead. When I realised we were going to go all the way, I tried to figure out a way to win this. I have a god sprint out of a small group apparently."

Sport director Geert De Bondt had made positioning on the descent part of his pre-race strategy.

"We knew Andrew had to be up front going into the climb and that he had to take the descent in a top 10 position which he did," De Bondt told after the race. "He then he made the split at the bottom with 7 riders and executed his sprint perfectly."

Going for overall victory

With his overall 2nd place in the Tour de Romandie and 7th place in the Vuelta a Espana, Talansky proved last year that he has what it takes to be competitive in the GC in the biggest races. Confident in his own abilities, he now aims at the overall vicory.

"We have the jersey," he said. "It's nice to be in the jersey. It's always easier to defend something than to fight to get it. There's still a lot of good riders, there's Richie (Porte, ed.), there's Tejay (Van Garderen, ed.), there's (Lieuwe, ed.) Westra, everyone. We will do what we can to keep it."

The main reason for his final podium place in the Tour de Romandie was an incredible performance in the final uphill time trial in which he was just fractions of a second from beating Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky). With the key stages in Paris-Nice being Friday's mountaintop finish on Montagne de Lure and Sunday's concluding time trial up Col d'Eze, the route seems tailormade for the American.

He agrees in this assessment.

"Montagne de Lure is a really good climb for me. It's really up to me. The final time trial on Col d'Eze is another good one for me. Especially Col d'Eze. I think it's possible for me. I watched Col d'Eze on videos. I think it's perfect for me."

Before he gets to Col d'Eze, he will have to tackle tomorrow's 199,5 km fourth stage. Passing through Massif Central, it is a hilly affair with 7 categorized climbs, and Talansky will need to produce another outstanding performance to keep his rivals under control on the final climb with just 8,5 km to finish.