The 2007 Tour of Germany is held from August 10 thru August 18.

My thoughts before reacing began.
A difficult day beckoned for the 3rd stage of the Tour with two Category 1 climbs to overcome, there could be a break in the peloton along the way. However, the final climb comes 50km before the finish which should be plenty of time for any lone breakaways to be tracked down and caught.

Stage Summary
An early breakaway was established by Niki Terpstra (Team Milram) and Christian Leben (Team Wiesenhof Felt) and together they managed to open up a gap of as much as 6'25 before the CSC team began to pull things back together.

The first of the stage's 2 category 1 climbs saw Leben fall off the pace and be swallowed by the field, but Terpstra pushed on alone and he was first over the top at Allerhelligen. He then began to be reeled in by a chasing group of 2 riders consisting of Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) and Jon Bru Pascal (Euskaltel-Euskadi). He managed to go over the second Category 1 climb at Zuflucht before being joined by the 2 pursuers and a third chaser in the form of Amael Moinard (Cofidis). These 4 riders were 1 minute ahead of the main pack as they began their descent.

Stage 3 Profile

Although the lead 4 pushed hard over the final 25km, they were constantly being dragged back to the field and with a short but nasty little hill just 8km from the end their escape was over. Ever the aggressor, Jens Voigt then made an attack taking around 11 others with him but it was going to wind up as a day for the stronger sprinters and one of the strongest is still Erik Zabel who took the stage victory (his 13th in the Tour of Germany). He managed to outpace Jose Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) with Bardley McGee (Francaise des Jeux) in 3rd place.

Overall classification placings remain largely unchanged with most of the CSC and Discovery riders with any real designs on the title finishing with the lead group of 76 riders. The stage victory has catapaulted Zabel into the lead of the Points Classification with 41 points and an 8 point advantage over Jose Joaquin Rojas. Niki Terpstra has pulled out to a 12 point lead in the Mountains Classification after picking up first place points over both Category 1 climbs at Allerheiligen and Zuflucht. The Young Rider Classification is still headed by Andy Schleck and Chris Anker Sørensen (Team CSC).

Stage 3 summaries can also be found at:

Team Milram Website - with a stage win and their man Niki Terpstra in the Mountains jersey, the Milram website is packed with thoughts and impressions about the race so far.
Team CSC Website - CSC are pleased that they were able to successfully defend Voigt's hold on the leaders jersey.
Cyclingnews.com
Velonews.com
Daily Peloton

Stage 3 Results

1 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram                                        4.49.25 (37.69 km/h)
2 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                             
3 Bradley Mcgee (Aus) Française des Jeux                                    
4 Manuele Mori (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir                                   
5 Patrick Calcagni (Sui) Liquigas                                           
6 René Weissinger (Ger) Team Volksbank                                      
7 Björn Leukemans (Bel) Predictor-Lotto                                     
8 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) T-Mobile Team                                         
9 René Mandri (Est) AG2r Prévoyance                                         
10 Martin Elmiger (Sui) AG2r Prévoyance                                      

Overall GC (Top 10)

1 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC                                    10.05.20
2 Fabian Cancellara (Sui) Team CSC                                0.01
3 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC                                              
4 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) Team CSC                                         
5 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC                                              
6 Volodymir Gustov (Ukr) Team CSC                                          
7 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team CSC                                      
8 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel                0.27
9  Jurgen Van Goolen (Bel) Discovery Channel                
10 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel                

Points Classification

1 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram                                         41 pts
2 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Caisse D'Espargne                   33
3 Robert Förster (Ger) Gerolsteiner                                   29

Mountains Classification

1 Niki Terpstra (Ned) Team Milram                          20 pts
2 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner                              8
3 Christian Leben (Ger) Team Wiesenhof Felt            8

Young Rider

1 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC                                     10.05.21
2 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den) Team CSC                                                      
3 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                  0.51
4 Matthias Russ (Ger) Gerolsteiner                                       0.54
5 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner                                       0.55

Teams 

1 Team CSC                                         30.16.03
2 Discovery Channel                                  1.18
3 Gerolsteiner                                            2.45