No breakaways and no action is the best way to sum up the first 110km of stage 3…
Despite the lack of action the crowds were out in force to see the peloton with many villages decorated for the occasion.
After an action packed first two stages of Le Tour the riders weren’t keen on making an exciting race with the weather and parcours certainly playing a big part.
Today’s stage – 178km almost completely flat and a block headwind for the last 50km. Not an encouraging day for a breakaway!
The riders did set a record though – the least active stage in history! The race jury who nominates the combativity award every day took the extraordinary decision of not awarding a winner today!
So after a long day of absolutely nothing happening some action finally occurred at the intermediate sprint point with 65km remaining but unfortunately it wasn’t the sort of action that the Alpecin team were looking for. Green jersey clad Jasper Philipsen clashed with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and the first yellow jersey winner of this year’s Tour was down and out of the race.
With Philpsen on the ground and out of the race, the Alpecin-Deceuninck team had to re-adjust and were now putting all their eggs into the Kaden Groves basket for the bunch sprint which would surely come after a day of almost ‘non’ racing.
The only true breakaway of the day was by the new Belgian champion, Tim Wellens (UAE) who went to the front of the peloton, explained to the other riders that he was breaking away and would then sit up after the only KOM point on offer today.
Please can I break away guys?
Why was Tim breaking away? Well his leader Pogacar was leading the KOM competition today and as cool as it is to have a special jersey at the Tour de France there are time and media commitments that come with it and Pogi didn’t want them. As Wellens was coming second in the competition, he needed simply to win the one point on offer and he would take the polka-dot jersey from Pogacar.
So exactly as promised Wellens broke away, gained 1m30s, took the point and then dropped back to the peloton.
No polka-dots for Pogi tomorrow
There was still 30km to go but with the headwind and fresh legs in the bunch nobody wanted to try an attack and so the bunch rolled on to Dunkirk. Fresh legs, the pressure of the Tour and approaching a big town is never a great combination though and it was obvious to one and all that crashes would occur.
Sure enough shoulders started to bump and riders started to tumble. Remco Evenpoel was caught up in one crash with 4km to go but came out unscathed and the Alpecin duo of Van der Poel & Groves were also caught out in a separate incident but were able to remount and catch up to the sprint at the last minute.
As the bunch passed the 1km to go mark things were messy but Lidl-Trek and Picnic-PostNL had numbers but it wasn’t enough to hold out Tim Merlier who was solo in the last 800m but timed things perfectly. He won in a photo finish from Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Bahrain’s Phil Bauhaus in what was a very messy sprint that left numerous bodies on the ground with 400m to go.
Merlier, magnificent in the madness
Watch the medical reports tonight as we might lose not just Philpsen today but perhaps some other sprinters with the likes of Cees Bol (Astana), Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) & Émilien Jeannière (Total Energies) all hitting the deck very hard in the final.
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Tour de France Stage 3 Results:
1 Merlier Tim, Soudal Quick-Step
2 Milan Jonathan, Lidl – Trek
3 Bauhaus Phil, Bahrain – Victorious
4 Wærenskjold Søren, Uno-X Mobility
5 Bittner Pavel, Team Picnic PostNL
6 Girmay Biniam, Intermarché – Wanty
7 Groves Kaden, Alpecin – Deceuninck
8 van Poppel Danny, Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe
9 Ackermann Pascal, Israel – Premier Tech
10 Capiot Amaury, Arkéa – B&B Hotels
Tour de France Overall After Stage 3:
1. Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Deceuninck in 8:38:42
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Emirates XRG at 0:04
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:06
4. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels at 0:10
5. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:10
6. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 0:10
7. Joseph Blackmore (GB) Israel-Premier Tech at 41
8. Tobias Halland (Nor) Johannessen Uno-X Mobility at 41
9. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Jayco AlUla at 41
10. Emanuel Bauchmann (Cofidis) at 49
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