American rider Tyler Farrar put a difficult two months behind him to claim victory in the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday.

The Garmin-Cervelo rider dedicated the win to his close friend, Belgian Wouter Weylandt, who died in a crash during the Giro d'Italia in May.

"This has been a horrible last two months to be honest, with everything that happened. I had lots of ups and downs," said the 27-year-old, who became the first American to triumph on Independence Day.

"I wanted to do this for Wouter. It won't change anything but it means I don't forget him. I was thinking about him today.

"In the end, I wanted to be able to come back and do something special as a tribute. This is certainly the biggest stage to do that."

Farrar rode well during the intermediate sprint on Saturday's opening stage and outsprinted France's Romain Feillu and Jose Joaquin Rojas of Spain on the line.

"The first mass sprint of the tour is always chaotic," Farrar told The Telegraph. "I've been chasing this win for a few years. I've come close a lot and to finally get it is a huge relief."

The Garmin-Cervelo outfit claimed their maiden Tour victory the previous day and retain hold of the Tour leader's yellow jersey; Norwegian world champion Thor Hushovd remains atop the leaderboard.

Tyler Farrar
Tyler Farrar dedicated his stage victory to Wouter Weylandt.

Live coverage

The 98th Tour de France started on Saturday 2 July, with 22 teams racing over 3,430km in 21 stages, culminating with a finish at the Champs-Élysées in Paris -- a full list of dates is available here.

Live online coverage of the Tour is available in the UK and Europe via Eurosport, with subscriptions starting from £3.99. Full race highlights are available every evening on ITV.

In the US, the tour will be shown live on Versus, with repeats and highlights being aired on NBC. The entire event is also available online. NBC is selling a Tour de France all access pass for $29.95, which provides HD video of every stage of the race all the way through to the final leg, when cyclists reach Paris on 24 July. Read more at NBC, via GigaOm.

For viewers in other countries, Steephill.tv has a comprehensive list of channels showing for the Tour in other regions.