Paris-Nice: Hivert wins stage 3

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Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie) claimed victory on stage 3 of Paris-Nice as Luis León Sánchez (Astana) moved into the overall lead.

The Frenchman, who won both stages and the overall at the Tour du Haut Var last month, comfortably sprinted away from Sánchez and Remy di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence) after the trio had gone clear over the top of a late category 3 climb.

The peloton split to pieces on the lower slopes of the climb and, despite a regrouping on the descent, they were only able to roll across the line in Châtel-Guyon some 38 seconds in arrears.

Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) led the bunch home for fourth place but surrendered his yellow jersey to Sánchez, who now leads the race by half a minute.

"I had a good start to the season, and wanted to do well here at Paris-Nice," Hivert said. "I didn't do well the first day in the rain, and I wasn't very happy, so I tried to redress that today. It's great for Direct Energie to have at least one stage win, and we'll carry on to the end of the week."

For the third day in a row Paris-Nice served up a stage that was hard to predict. It was the longest of the race, at 210 kilometres, and no one knew quite what impact the Côte de Charbonnières, topping out 20km shy of the line, would have on proceedings.

Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) was the chief aggressor and left the peloton in pieces, but came away with nothing to show for his efforts. He passed the KOM banner in pole position, with Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) for company, but the road continued to rise for another 2.5km to the second intermediate sprint point, during which time the chasing group of 20 was able to come back.

A couple of attacks came and went and, just after the sprint banner, Di Gregorio tried his luck and was joined by Sánchez and Hivert. The fast, swooping descent, combined with a lack of a concerted chase – which Sánchez's teammates did their upmost to disrupt – saw them open a lead of 40 seconds. That also allowed dropped riders such as Démare, Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and Woet Poels (Team Sky), who'd punctured, to re-enter the fray as the chase groups joined back together.

As the road kicked up again in the final 2km, however, it was clear victory would be played out amongst the leading three, and the tactical complexion favoured Hivert. Di Gregorio knew the only way he could win was to attack, and Hivert knew that Sánchez, with the yellow jersey in his sights, would have to close him down. Sitting on Sánchez's wheel all the way to the last few hundred metres, there was little surprise or response when Hivert struck out and claimed the biggest victory of his career.

"I didn't calculate anything at all. When I saw we were in a little group like that after the climb, I thought it might be too well organised behind, that it might be better to wait," Hivert said.

"I often wait for the finish because I'm quick, but I tried to follow the guys who went, and then in the last couple of kilometres I played off the other two. I almost had it in my head before the line that I was going to win but I still needed to do it."

How it unfolded

The clouds gathered over Bourges once more on Tuesday morning, but with a 210-kilometre trip due south – the longest stage here – the 'Race to the Sun' would take a big step towards its final destination.

After a block headwind deterred attacks yesterday, this time it didn't take long for a breakaway to form. In there were Jay Thomson (Dimension Data), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) and Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Delko Marseille Provence) and they quickly opened up a lead of seven minutes over the peloton.

FDJ hit the front of the peloton to keep things under control but only at the half-way stage did the gap start to come down. Before that, Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb) abandoned with knee pain while fellow sprinter Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) also left the race.

While Thomson had taken maximum points at the first intermediate sprint, Grellier struck out on the back-to-back category-3 climbs in the second half of the parcours to move level on points in the KOM standings with Pierre-Luc Périchon (Fortuneo-Samsic).

Such was Grellier's eagerness, he opened up a big gap on his two companions and decided to go it alone. The gap came tumbling down, though, over the next 35 kilometres and he was caught by the advancing peloton just shy of the entry to the 35km finishing circuit.

The circuit gave the riders a chance to preview the uphill final couple of kilometres, though Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) was already out of the picture, reportedly suffering with illness.

The climb started soon after the finish line and it wasn't long before sprinters were losing contact as Astana and Quick-Step drove the pace. Poels suffered an untimely mechanical and, after a wheel change from a teammate, he and Sky were forced onto the back foot, though they kept Sergio Henao in the front group.

After a huge turn from Dries Devenyns, Alaphilippe made his move. At first only Wellens could follow, and he seemed to have trouble just holding the Frenchman's wheel. The group thinned to 20 riders, with Démare and Trentin dropped. Fuglsang attacked next and latched onto Wellens and Alaphilippe at the KOM point but the sting was taken out of the move when Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) and Ion Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida) made it over.

On the ensuing false flat, Fuglsang attacked and, after he was reeled in by Mitchelton-Scott's Roman Kreuziger, Sánchez went next for Astana when Di Gregorio attacked. Hivert, breaking out of his comfort zone, joined for the ride and all the circumstances played in his favour.

"I feel brand new right now," said the 32-year-old. "I had operations on both knees not long ago. I always had niggles but now everything's going well and I hope I can still do nice things."

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