Paris-Nice: Sam Bennett wins stage 3

After crosswinds caused chaos on the opening two stages of Paris-Nice, stage 3 was a more straightforward affair, with Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) taking victory in a bunch sprint.

A headwind was blowing for much of the southerly 200km journey from Cepoy to Moulins and, though Team Sky briefly split the race in the closing kilometres, it was a more traditional bunch finish that saw Bennett claim his third win of the season.

The Irishman beat Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) to the line, while Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma), the race leader and winner of the opening two stages, faded fast.

Groupama-FDJ led out the sprint for Arnaud Démare, and Bennett hijacked the wheel of Groenewegen’s lead-out man, Mike Teunissen, before opening the taps. Ewan was in the slipstream and attempted to come around, but to no avail, while Jakobsen made up ground on the right to take the final podium spot.

Groenewegen, the big favourite after the first two stages, looked empty, and in the end, sat up and was passed by Dan McLay (EF Education First) and Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept (B&B Hotels).

“It’s nice to come back and win again here,” said Bennett, who won a stage in the 2017 Paris-Nice and made it three wins from three stage races in 2019 after success at the Vuelta a San Juan and the UAE Tour. “There’s strong competition here and last week and I’m competing with the best. I’m very proud of that and the job the team have done for me.

“Groenewegen was just super strong the past two days, I think unbeatable,” he added. “I had bad legs, really bad legs the past two days, I don’t know if it was coming from the heat to the cold, I haven’t really been training in the cold this winter. I knew that the form was there and that I just had to keep on trying. Today the legs were a lot better, it was an easier day but I’m starting to get a bit more used to the cold.”

In terms of the battle for the overall classification, it was a quieter day, with Groenewegen retaining the yellow jersey, but the intermediate sprints once again saw some interesting developments.

The first came after 24.5km, the second with 18km to go, and Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) was first across the line at both, collecting three bonus seconds on each occasion. The Polish champion has now collected 16 bonus seconds so far, which, in a race that has been decided by fewer than five seconds in each of the past three years, could prove decisive by the time they reach the Côte d’Azur.

Kwiatkowski sits second overall, trailing Groenwegen by six seconds and leading Luis León Sánchez (Astana), who picked up two bonus seconds today and five on the opening day, by five seconds. Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) is fourth at 16 seconds, while Kwiatkowski’s Sky teammate Egan Bernal, who bagged two bonus seconds at the second sprint today, is fifth at 17 seconds.

AG2R La Mondiale, who have also gone after bonus seconds, have both Tony Gallopin, who picked up one second at the first sprint today, and Romain Bardet in the top ten, 21 and 23 seconds down, respectively, on Groenewegen.

Wednesday’s stage 4 introduces some hills into the mix, with time gaps possible on a parcours that is likely to see a reduced group contest victory at the finish.

How it unfolded

The wind was still blowing in northern France on Tuesday morning, but not as strongly as the opening two days and, crucially, not in the same direction. The stage 3 route headed due south for 200km from Cepoy to Moulins - the longest of the week - and it was a headwind pretty much all the way.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the calm in the opening phases, with barely 30km covered in the first hour of racing, and no serious attempts at a breakaway. The 2018 champion Marc Soler (Movistar) crashed inside three kilometres but comfortably made his way back to the peloton, while Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) abandoned the race later on through illness.

The early highlight was the intermediate sprint after 24.5km, where Kwiatkowski and Sánchez once again went off in search of bonus seconds. The Sky rider grabbed the maximum three, with two going to the Spaniard, and the remaining one to Gallopin.

A breakaway finally came after around 40 kilometres. First, a group of eight riders clipped off the front of the peloton: Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Sky), Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ), Tim Declercq (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Reto Hollenstien (Katusha-Alpecin), Anthony Turgis (Direct Energie), Kevin Reza (Vital Concept), Ramunas Navardauskas (Delko Marseille Provence). However, with some big engines in there, and with Turgis 13th overall at just 25 seconds, it wasn’t allowed any room for manoeuvre.

Navardauskas was undeterred, and was immediately off again, this time in the company of his Delko Marseille Provence teammate Alessandro Fedeli, a 23-year-old Italian neo-pro. The duo were allowed off the leash and built a lead of 5:30 before the peloton - commanded mainly by Jumbo-Visma and Lotto Soudal - started to bring the gap down around the half-way mark.

There was an increase in pace with 60km to go as the direction changed slightly towards the south-east. The wind consequently changed to a cross-headwind and many teams moved to take up position at the front of the peloton, though it was more of an insurance policy rather than anyone trying to split the race.

The increase in pace saw the escapees’ advantage plummet, and they were caught with 38km to go. There was a moment of drama soon after as the country road narrowed over a bridge, the squeeze effect causing a big crash in the middle of the peloton that pretty much cut it in half. Riders had to wait for more than a minute for the mess to clear and the road to open up again, though the sedate pace up front meant it wasn’t long before everyone got back in.

The second intermediate sprint once again saw Kwiatkowski on the move, with lead-out duties performed by Luke Rowe in what was a three-man Sky train, with Egan Bernal taking second place.

Those three were once again on the front foot inside six kilometres to go, as they got a whiff of a crosswind and decided to apply the pressure again after an aggressive showing on the opening two stages. They succeeded in splitting the bunch, with Kwiatkowski and Bernal creating a brief six-man split before things came back together for the final kilometre.

FDJ and Jumbo-Visma assumed lead-out responsibilities but their sprinters both faded dramatically, and Bennett came roaring through for a victory that should strengthen his case for leadership opportunities at Bora-Hansgrohe. 

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