Bora-Hansgrohe rider Peter Sagan took an emphatic Stage 3 victory at the 104th Tour de France on a
route perfectly suited for the powerful sprinter.
After the first two days at the 2017 Tour de France were filled with dark clouds, heavy rain, and slick roads, Stage 3 was a welcome surprise with sunny skies and a comfortable breeze.
A six-rider breakaway formed 13 km into Stage 3, comprised of Nathan Brown (Cannondale-Drapac), Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin), Romain Sicard (Direct Energie), Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal), and Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Oscaro), before being joined by Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie). Thomas de Gendt (BMC), and Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fortuneo-Oscaro) with 57 kilometers remaining. Nils Politt was able to capture the stage's intermediate sprint at the 89 km mark in Wincrange.
The group slowly whittled down to four riders, Calmejane, de Gendt, Perichon, and Hardy, with Hardy as the only remaining rider from the initial break to be in the front group until only 20 kilometers remained.
With 10 kilometers remaining in the race, Calmejane, the final rider remaining from the breakaway, was overtaken by the peloton, who would take the race from there.
Stage 3 set up for a bunch sprint at the end as the peloton approached the final 1.6 km climb up the Cote des Religieuses to the Longwy Citadel.
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) took the lead early in the climb, but could not distance himself from the pack and worked back into the peloton with around 800 meters left. With 500 meter remaining, Peter Sagan would move to the front of the group.
Sagan fell out of the clip with his right foot with around 300 meters left, as Van Avermaet began to close the gap while Sagan sought to get back into the pedal. Sagan, however, would quickly clip back in, and use his unmatched power to muscle his way up the climb and across the finish line in first place.
Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) would move his way up with 100 meters remaining in the final sprint from fourth place to finish second on the stage. Daniel Martin (Quick-Step Floors) would end up capturing third, while Van Avermaet had to settle for a fourth place finish on Stage 3.
Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) retained Maillot Jaune for another day, as Chris Froome (Team Sky) sits in second in the general classification, 12 seconds back of Thomas.
Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors) will keep the green points classification jersey after Stage 3, accumulating 66 points currently, with Arnaud Demare (FDJ) sitting in second with 57 points, and Sagan moving into third in the points classification with 50.
Nathan Brown will replace his Cannondale-Drapac teammate Taylor Phinney in the polka dot mountains classification jersey after his work in the breakaway on Stage 3, while Pierre Latoure (AG2R La Mondiale) will take Stefan Kung's (BMC) spot as the leader of the best young rider classification. Team Sky once again hold the lead in the team classification.
Tomorrow's Stage 4 will take the riders 207.5 km from the town of Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg to Vittel in France.
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