On the startline in Wanze

After yesterday’s unusual finish, the Tour de France lurched towards normality as the riders and teams gathered at the start of stage 3 in Wanze, Belgium.

Ahead of the bunch lay 213km of relatively flat roads, including 13.2 kilometres of cobbles, split over seven sections.

Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) looked resplendent in yellow, his freshly painted yellow and green bike the stand out feature by the Quick Step bus.

Meanwhile Jonathan Vaughters (Garmin-Transitions) put on a brave face after what he described as ‘the worst day the team had ever had in the Tour,” with Vande Velde crashing out and Tyler Farrar finishing but sustaining several injuries.

Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Testteam) was only focused on the future. The Norwegian was one of the few riders to disagree with yesterday’s neutralised finish. According to one Cervelo source he was more motivated than ever to win.

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Daniel Benson

Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.