Paris-Nice: Pedersen wins stage 3

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Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) delivered a powerful acceleration to win stage 3 of Paris-Nice, beating Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) to the line in a reduced bunch sprint in Dun-le-Palestel.

Behind them, yellow jersey Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma) crashed in the finishing straight, but the Frenchman remounted to complete the stage and retain the overall lead, one second ahead of Van Aert and nine ahead of their teammate Primož Roglič.

After the category 3 climb of the Côte de Le Peyroux had shaken several established sprinters loose, including stage 2 winner Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), Van Aert looked the obvious candidate for victory here, but he was unable to match Pedersen's power on the rise to the line.

Pedersen sprinted from the front thanks to a long lead-out from teammate Jasper Stuyven. He still had a lot left to do after the Milan-San Remo champion swung off, but he produced an imposing sprint to burn Van Aert off his wheel within sight of the line. Coquard came around Van Aert in the final metres, but by that point, the former world champion was already raising his arms to celebrate his third victory of the season.

"Of course, I knew the finish, we did it one lap earlier," Pedersen joked of his victory on the finishing circuit in Dun-le-Palestel. "No, we looked into it yesterday. We missed out on yesterday's stage with a bit of bad luck, with [Alex] Kirsch having a puncture and me losing the chain. We wanted to make up for it today and the boys did a fantastic job the whole day to make it as easy as possible for me. A perfect lead-out from Alex and Jasper and then a good sprint in the end. So it was a pretty good day."

Laporte was prominent at the head of the front group in the closing kilometres as Jumbo-Visma looked to ensure a sprint for Van Aert, and he keeps yellow despite the late scare he endured when he touched wheels with Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ) in the final 200m and hit the ground.

"I was just putting my head down and sprinting, so I hope everyone is OK if there was a crash," said Pedersen.

Laporte was handed the same time as the rest of the front group, but his advantage shrank all the same, as Van Aert picked up four bonus seconds for placing third and Roglič picked up two seconds thanks to his vigilance at the second intermediate sprint with 18km remaining.

Roglič will be expected to divest Laporte of yellow in Wednesday's short individual time trial to Montluçon, though Van Aert, too, might be in the reckoning.

The flagging overall challenge of Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), meanwhile, ended definitively when he was distanced on the Côte de Le Peyroux. The American had already suffered a severe setback when he lost 1:29 as the peloton splintered into echelons on Monday, though he will hope his fine early-season form can help him to retrieve something from the Race to the Sun in the days ahead.

How it unfolded

After crosswinds had buffeted the Paris-Nice peloton the previous afternoon, the conditions were mercifully more calm on the road from Vierzon to Dun-le-Palestel on stage 3. When  Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost) and Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels-KTM) escaped in the opening kilometres, the bunch was happy to grant them leeway, and they quickly amassed a lead of five minutes in the flat opening hour of racing.

That status quo remained largely in place even as the terrain grew more rugged, with De Gendt leading over the category 3 climbs of the Côte de Eguzon and the Côte de Crozant, but their advantage began to contract more rapidly as the race crossed the finish line for the first time with 44km to go.

A new phase of the race began when Søren Kragh Andersen (DSM) attacked with 30km remaining, as the road climbed ahead of the ascent of the Côte de Le Peyroux. Although the Dane was soon brought to heel, the forcing of Jumbo-Visma and Cofidis served to whittle down the peloton, with sprinters Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl), Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) among those distanced with 25km to go.

Rather more surprisingly, Brandon McNulty also lost contact with the peloton here, his GC ambitions effectively over. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), who lost 10 minutes when he crashed on stage 2, lasted a little longer, but he was distanced amid the flurry of attacks over the other side.

Part of that aggression was inspired by the uphill intermediate sprint with 18km to go, and Pierre Latour took advantage of a lead-out from TotalEnergies teammates Mathieu Burgaudeau to pick up 3 bonus seconds, while Roglič stole a march on Adam Yates et al by snaring second place.

On the rolling run-in to Dun-le-Palestel, Andersen made a second attempt to forge clear, but his offensive was doomed by the pursuit of Movistar, who were working on behalf of Ivan Garcia Cortina.

Laporte, meanwhile, was prominent in trying to ensure a reduced bunch sprint for his teammate Van Aert, but it was Trek-Segafredo who would ultimately pilot Pedersen to victory.

"It's my first WorldTour win in a long time," said Pedersen. Despite his turn of speed here, he confirmed afterward that he would not ride Milan-San Remo, preferring to focus on the cobbled Classics tha follow. "It's really nice to start out well and it's showing a good direction for the Classics, which are coming up in a few weeks."