Circuit de la Sarthe: Pedersen sprints to second victory of week on stage 3

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Mads Pedersen produced another powerful sprint to win stage 3 of the Circuit Cycliste Sarthe - Pays de la Loire. The Trek-Segafredo rider accelerated early on the rising finish to catch and pass Kevin Vauquelin (Arkéa-Samsic) just a metre before the finish line. 

Pedersen won by less than a wheel, with the French rider holding on for second and Mark Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) third after trying to come past Pedersen.

Thanks to his second stage win in three days, Pedersen extended his overall race lead. He leads Vauquelin, now in second place by 23 seconds, with Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R Citroën) in third and Axel Zingle (Cofidis) fourth in the same time.

“It’s cool to win again, my team worked really hard for this,” Pedersen explained.“The guy from Arkea did a good move, so I had to do a long sprint. “I had to go early and hope to catch him. It worked out well for us. I passed him just five metres from the finish. 

“It’s a good week, it’s nice to have good shape like this, especially with Paris-Roubaix coming up."

The 176.5km stage covered a long loop before seven laps around Sablé-sur-Sarthe. The wind and rain made for a hard day out for the 96 riders left in the race. Tim Declercq (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) was a notable abandon, his team saying he was struggling with illness.

The stage again started fast with a break of six riders getting away and testing the peloton. In the move were Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies), Emiel Vermeulen (Go Sport-Roubaix Lille Métropole), Tony Hurel (St. Michel-Auber 93), Andrii Ponomar (Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli) and Laurent Pichon (Arkéa-Samsic).

They opened a 4:00 lead and kept it until 85km to go as the race passed through Sablé-sur-Sarthe. Trek-Segafreo lead the chase and the gap fell to 1:30 with 45km to go but the six held the same lead until 27km and two laps to go.In the final 10km, Steinhauser attacked alone and opened a 20-second gap on the high-speed peloton.

He looked set to hold off the chasers but as the road rose, his gap fell quickly. He was caught with a kilometre to go and then Vauquelin counter-attacked. He seemed set for victory until Pedersen went long and early to catch him on the line.