In theory, Stage 3 of the Tour de France could be a breather for the pure sprinters after Sunday’s relentless up-and-down grind. However, this is the Tour de France, where crosswinds can easily rewrite the script. The third day of racing is 178 km from Valenciennes to Dunkerque, hugging the Calais coast for the finish.
It’s mostly flat—perfect for the fastmen to flex—but Mère Nature may have other plans.
Mont Cassel, a cat-4 climb that already played a role on stage one, returns. It’s not too tough, just 2.3 km at 3.8 per cent average. And it comes less than 30 km from the finish.
Once they top Mont Cassel, the route flattens again. But again, watch out for that wind. The exposed roads near Dunkerque have a reputation for whipping up crosswinds that can shred the peloton into echelons. That’s bad news for the GC favourites if they’re not sharp, as a split could leave some riders stranded and time bleeding away. We saw on Stage 1 how riders like Remco Evenepoel could lose 39 seconds if they miss the selection. So it’s not just sprinters vying for the win on Monday, it’s GC riders who don’t want to lose time before the real test begins–the climbs and TTs. The hectic first week can take its toll riders going for the overall.
Sunday saw a terrific race that had Mathieu van der Poel take the win, and yellow. And he did so by beating the two biggest GC favourites. Tadej Pogačar (Team UAE Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) took second and third, respectively. Alpecin-Deceuninck now has yellow and green. And Pogi has a rare polka-dot jersey, too.
Action on Flobikes.com gets underway at 7:00 a.m. EDT and your pals at Canadian Cycling Magazine will have a full report once it’s done. So get ready to minimize your browser at work and read about Stage 3!
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