Tour de Yorkshire: Walscheid wins stage 3

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Max Walscheid (Team Sunweb) won stage 3 of the Tour de Yorkshire in Scarborough, pipping overall leader Magnus Cort Nielsen (Astana) to the line in a frantic sprint finish. Jon Aberasturi (Euskadi-Murias) took third place.

With late attacker Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Énergie) caught within sight of the line, there was hardly enough time to organise a proper sprint. Vital Concept and Bryan Coquard hit the front first, before Nielsen powered through with Walscheid on his wheel. The German then came through in the closing metres to score his first victory of the season.

"A few times during the day, I was on the limit but I had a great team and they brought me back," said Walscheid after the finish. "We did really good work.

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Cort Nielsen's second place sees him extend his GC lead to ten seconds over Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), while Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) retains third overall, twelve seconds back.

"It was an intense day," said Cort Nielsen after the stage. "I'm very happy though. I keep the jersey. Last year on this finish I was lying at the 200-metre mark with a broken collarbone and fractured ribs so I'm happy to be back here and feeling a lot better than I did last year.

"Tomorrow will be really, really hard and it will not be easy to keep the jersey," he added.

How it happened

The penultimate stage of the race saw a return to the coastal town of Scarborough, the only permanent fixture of the race's short history. Back in 2015 and 2016, the windy and lumpy finish proved to be a race decider, but last year saw Dylan Groenewegen beat Caleb Ewan in a bunch sprint.

Two categorised climbs peppered the stage - the Côte de Suffolk Bank (1.4km at 12%) at 69.5km, and the Côte de Silpho (1.5km at 8.2%) at 132.5km. Intermediate sprints came at Morton-on-Swale 38km into the stage, and at Pickering at the 102.5km mark. On the run-in to the coast, the familiar hills would provide opportunity to once again foil the sprinters.

Peter Williams (One Pro Cycling), Johnny McEvoy (Madison-Genesis), Robbert De Greef (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Mathias Le Turnier (Cofidis) and Adam Kenway (Virtus Pro Cycling) made up the break of the day, escaping in the first 15km and quickly building up a lead of 2:30.

Williams took the first climb at Suffolk Bank. However, McEvoy foiled his bid for the overall lead (working on behalf of teammate and classification leader Michael Cuming) on the Côte de Silpho. Meanwhile De Greef won the points but perhaps more importantly, the bonus cash, for both in-termediate sprints.

BMC hit the front at Silpho, splitting the peloton. It wasn't long, though, before the two groups and breakaway were reunited on the first pass through Scarborough, 37km from the line.

As crosswinds hit the race on the exposed headlands on the loop south of the town, a five-rider group including the GC threat of Brent Bookwalter (BMC), broke away with 20km to race. It took 10km of work for the Astana- and Vital Concept-led peloton to make the catch, but once they did all signs pointed towards a bunch sprint.

Chavanel launched out of the peloton unopposed 5km from the line, looking to disrupt the party. It looked as though he would score an unlikely victory, but the combined forces of Team Sky and Vital Concept saw him swallowed up metres from the finish.

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