Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Mobility) won the third stage of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque with an electrifying acceleration in the final kilometre, a day that was characterised by eight laps of the 2.9km Hélesmes à Wallers cobblestone section.
After resisting several attacks on the final sector, Tiller accelerated under the flamme rouge, immediately opening a decisive gap to cross the line first in Wallers Arenberg, four seconds ahead of overnight leader Laurence Pithie (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), with Jason Tesson (TotalEnergies) in third place.
The win wasn’t quite enough to see Tiller wrestle the lead from Pithie, who will go into stage 4 with a two-second advantage over the Norwegian, with Joppe Heremans of Van Rysel Roubaix sitting in third, 16 seconds back.
This was Tiller’s first win of the 2026 season. The Norwegian calculated his attack before the race, knowing that it would be difficult to chase behind after the final cobbled section.
“We talked about it in the bus before the start. Instead of waiting for the sprint, I tried to find my move and I knew it was short from the last cobbled sector to the finish. I’m really happy that I managed to stay away,” Tiller told the TV cameras afterwards.
“Really good help from the team today, we rode really good and I’m really happy to take my first win of the season. After a difficult spring it’s nice to get a win again.”
Laurence Pithie just hung onto his leader's jersey on stage 3 (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
On a day that promised intrigue due to the rough, dusty cobblestones of Hélesmes à Wallers, the fight for the early breakaway was long and difficult. Eventually, three riders extricated themselves from the peloton: Alexys Brunel (TotalEnergies), Simon Guglielmi (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber 93) and Tom Mainguenaud (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur).
Brunel swept up the early bonus sprints, taking 9 seconds in the GC having sat ten seconds down leading into the stage. However, the breakaway never built up much of an advantage as the peloton kept the pace high over the cobbles.
The group was all back together mid-way through the 157.7km stage with four passages of the pavé still to be negotiated. The high pace caused early splits in the peloton with 50km to go as a group of around 15 went away. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe missed the move with their leader Pithie and began a fierce pursuit, with several riders dangerous for the GC 30 seconds up the road.
On the penultimate set of cobbles, which concluded with 19km to go, the gap came down again. This allowed race leader Pithie to attack across to the front, where he had a team-mate in Callum Thornley. The gap between the groups was just five seconds once back on the asphalt, but expanded as Thornley pulled and the chase group stalled.
With 10km to go, the likes of NSN were pulling from behind with the gap at around 15 seconds leading into the final cobbled section. Tiller led onto the cobbles for the final time before Thomas made an acceleration with 2km to go, followed by Pithe and several others.
However, the elastic could not be broken and Tiller launched in the final kilometre once back on the asphalt to take the stage by four seconds ahead of Pithie and Heremans.
Dan is a freelance cycling journalist who has written for Cyclingnews since 2023 alongside other work with Cycling Weekly, Rouleur and Escape Collective. Dan focuses much of his work on professional cycling beyond its traditional European heartlands and writes a regular Substack called Global Peloton.
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