Stage 3

The road

At the start

Sagan in yellow, a flat day to Angers

The Glacerie did exactly what it was put there to do: Peter Sagan took the stage and the yellow jersey, with Julian Alaphilippe eight seconds back, Alejandro Valverde ten, and Froome, Quintana and Barguil all at fourteen. Today the Tour turns inland for 222 flat kilometres to Angers. Richie Porte, who punctured six kilometres from Cherbourg and waited an age for a wheel, starts almost two minutes down.

How it was won

1. 180 km to go

   Voeckler gets bored

   Armindo Fonseca has been alone all day through his native Brittany when, with just over 80km left, Thomas Voeckler decides he has seen enough and bridges a five-minute gap on his own — pure mischief, and enough to wake the peloton.

2. 2At the line

   Cavendish by a hair

   Greipel opens on the uphill drag into Angers and finds a second wind, but Cavendish claws him back over the last hundred metres and wins by the slimmest of margins — level with Hinault on Tour stage wins.

The result