Stage 3

The road

At the start

The sprinters finally get a day

Mathieu van der Poel is in yellow after attacking the Mûr twice, eight seconds up on Alaphilippe, with Pogačar third at thirteen. Marc Soler starts nothing today: both arms broken in Saturday's crashes. From Lorient the road passes the standing stones at Carnac and crosses two small Breton climbs, then a finishing straight at Pontivy a kilometre and a half long.

How it was won

1. 134 km to go

   The last obstacle

   With Schelling no longer up the road there is nothing to fight for on the second passage of the Côte de Plumeliau; Wallays leads the remnants of the break over and the sprint teams take charge.

2. 29 km to go

   Roglič goes down

   A spate of crashes tears through the bunch at the ten-kilometre mark, and a kilometre later the pre-race favourite hits the ground hard, shredding jersey and shorts. Most of Jumbo-Visma drop back for him, but they cannot close a minute — and a second Tour ambition is unravelling before the first mountain.

3. 34 km to go

   Another one, four kilometres out

   Half a dozen riders go down again on the approach to a technical run-in of tight bridge turns and a near-hairpin. The stage is becoming attrition rather than racing.

4. 4At the line

   Merlier in Pontivy

   Van der Poel drives the final two kilometres in yellow for his own sprinter, and Alpecin-Fenix drop Tim Merlier off at 150 metres. Behind him Ewan touches a wheel and goes down, taking Sagan with him.

The result