Tour de France stage 3 Live – Sprinters in line to seize their first chance in Turin

-22km

The roads are wide on this run-in and the bunch is spread across the full width of the road for now, with Pogacar surrounded by a phalanx of UAE teammates.

-25km

The race has passed through Carmagnola, home of Gianluigi Lentini, who was the most expensive footballer in the world when he left Torino for AC Milan in the summer of 1992. The Tour marks the apex of cycling’s transfer rumour season, incidentally, before the window opens on August 1, allowing teams to make formal announcements about their new signings. Meanwhile, it’s gruppo compatto on the road to Turin.

-28.5km

Grellier is caught by the peloton, where Tim Declercq is winding up the pace. His former teammate Remco Evenepoel is sitting at the back. It’s not clear if he had a mechanical issue, but he looks comfortable as he starts to move up through the field again.

-30km

Alpecin-Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek and Jayco-Alula lead the peloton, which is hovering 10 seconds behind the lone escapee Fabien Grellier.

-33km

Grellier continues to linger just ahead of the bunch, his attack guttering but not yet snuffed out. The skies are darkening again overhead, but the peloton might just make it to Turin before the heavens open.

-35km

As the bunch closes to within five seconds of Grellier, the host broadcaster breaks away from live pictures to offer a slow-motion montage of the peloton’s leading sprinters – some of them waving shyly into the camera, like Arnaud Demare, others studiously ignoring it. 

-38km

The bunch is closing in on Grellier. In the absence of any other alternative, the Frenchman will likely end up on the podium as the day’s most combative rider for this attack.

-42km

A warning from the UAE Team Emirates team car about the wind and the exposed roads – though echelons are a relative rarity in Italian racing, as Alasdair Fotheringham outlined during the Giro d’Italia. 

-45km

Grellier’s advantage is beginning to melt rapidly, with the gap dropping to 20 seconds. The threatened rain hasn’t materialised, incidentally, and there are blue skies ahead for the peloton.

The indefatigable Silvan Dillier leads the peloton over the climb, and they are beginning to whittle seconds off Grellier’s advantage. It’s hard to see…