Paris-Nice stage 3 – As it happened

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All the action from the 32.2km TTT where times are taken from the first rider

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Hello there and welcome along to our live coverage of stage 3 of Paris-Nice. An exciting one today - not just a team time trial but an all-new format of team time trial. It's causing quite a stir already and it's sure to shake up this race as a whole by the end of the day 

Will we see one long lead-out? Will we see GC leaders soloing home? Will we actually see anything different at all? 

We're not far away from the start of the race, with Lotto-Dstny the first team down the ramp in a quarter of an hour. 

Here's the start ramp in Dampierre-en-Burly

The course today is 32.2km long, tracking a sort of triangle as it heads east then north, then south west, then east again back to home. It's a largely flat course, with only lightly undulating terrain and it's largely non-technical, too.

For more on this new format, and how teams have been preparing, here's Alasdair Fotheringham's report from Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates camp.

Pogačar and UAE testing different strategies for new Paris-Nice TTT format

We're off!

Israel-Premier Tech are next down the ramp. 

Here's the full list of start times

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Paris-Nice 2023 stage 3 TTT start times
TeamStart time
Lotto Dstny14:57:00
Israel-Premier Tech15:00:00
Bahrain Victorious15:03:00
Jayco AlUla15:06:00
Alpecin-Deceuninck15:09:00
Ineos Grenadiers15:12:00
Intermarché-Circus-Wanty15:15:00
Astana Qazaqstan15:18:00
Uno-X15:21:00
AG2R Citroën15:24:00
Arkéa-Samsic15:27:00
Team DSM15:30:00
Bora-Hansgrohe15:33:00
UAE Team Emirates15:36:00
Groupama-FDJ 15:39:00
Movistar15:42:00
TotalEnergies15:45:00
Jumbo-Visma15:48:00
Cofidis15:51:00
Soudal-Quickstep15:54:00
EF Education-EasyPost15:57:00
Trek-Segafredo16:00:00

Bahrain Victorious set off now. They're here with Jack Haig as their leader.

8 minutes into their effort, Lotto are still all together with a full seven riders.

Simon Yates' Jayco-AlUla men set off now.

Alpecin-Deceuninck are off next. They don't have a real GC contender and don't look to have a team capable of challenging for stage honours.

Next up: Ineos Grenadiers. This is how they line up

Tadej Pogacar is bobbing his head as he listens to music during his warm-up. He looks as relaxed as ever, and maybe that's because he's already taken a head start on his overall rivals, picking up 12 bonus seconds across the two intermediate sprints so far. 

Perhaps he'll need them, with Jonas Vingegaard's Jumbo-Visma arguably the favourites today, with Tobias Foss, Rohan Dennis, and Edoardo Affini among a super-strong line-up. 

Lotto are the first team to hit the mid-way checkpoint (16.7km) and they do so in a time of 17:30.

Jayco-AlUla are the first team to lose a rider, dropping to six after nine minutes of racing.

Israel-Premier Tech are almost half a minute down on Lotto at the checkpoint. 

Bahrain Victorious are the new checkpoint leaders, with 17:16.

Uno-X set off now, wearing those bizarre new TT helmets. More on them here.

Jayco take another chunk out of checkpoint benchmark - 16:53. They shedded a rider early on and that now looks like a well-considered tactic. 

Thomas De Gendt peels off for Lotto. They're down to six with 4km to go.

And now Harry Sweeny pulls off for Lotto. Down to five. 

Ineos hit the checkpoint and they're 24 seconds down on Jayco. 

Romain Bardet's DSM set off now.

Lotto are down to four now as Arnaud De Lie peels off. 

After losing a rider early on, Jayco are still with six with 8km to go

Into the final kilometre for Lotto and they all separate

It's Cedric Buellens who's tasked with bringing this home alone for Lotto-Dstny, and he sprints to the line to stop the clock on 34:58.

Lucas Hamilton pulls off for Jayco, who are now down to five with 5.5km to go

Time for UAE Team Emirates and Tadej Pogačar!

This is only the second TTT Pogačar has done in his career, the other being at the 2019 Vuelta in his first season, where UAE finished second last.

Israel-Premier Tech come to the line with two riders, finishing 90 seconds down on Lotto.

But here come Bahrain, and they run into a stray Israel straggler in the home straight! They nearly ride into him, and an arm goes up in remonstration from Bahrain's second rider. That's one problem with this format already made clear, or perhaps it'd be fine with the originally-planned five-minute gaps.

Anyway, it was Haig who was first to the line for Bahrain to stop the clock on 34:42 for the new best time.

But here come Jayco, with three riders in the final 500m.

Yates sprints to the line, Matthews sprinting in his wheel, and they're comfortably into the lead of this stage. 33:59 for the Australian team. 

Bad start for Pogacar!

Here were Jayco a little earlier.

More bad news for UAE as Domen Novak loses contact after fewer than eight minutes of racing. He's gone for good.

Alpecin-Deceuninck aren't going to trouble anyone, finishing 1:27 down on Jacyo-AlUla.

Ben Swift is the first rider to lose contact for Ineos, who are just shy of the final kilometre.

And now his cousin Connor Swift is gone.

Josh Tarling now. They are peeling fast.

Here they come, Martinez sprinting clear to cross the line ahead of Sivakov and Narvaez. 

Here come Jumbo-Visma!

What a squad this is...

Bora-Hansgrohe, with former overall winner Max Schachmann, are on a tear, five seconds down on Jayco at the intermediate.

Intermarché hit the line with four riders! Four! They're 1:29 down on the best so far. 

Bahrain Victorious on course a little earlier.

UAE Team Emirates reach the mid-way checkpoint and they are third fastest, 14 seconds down on Jayco-AlUla.

Astana hit the line with four as well! They're 1:09 down on Jayco's top time. 

Soudal-QuickStep set off. They don't have a GC man and their hopes of stage honours are dented by the absence of Mauro Schmid, who has abandoned due to illness. The Belgian team start with six here.

Groupama-FDJ are on a good ride, third fastest at the intermediate, 6 seconds down on Jayco. Good start for David Gaudu.

35:35 for Uno-X who hit the line with a pair of riders.

Trouble for QuickStep! Two riders have been dropped

Tim Declercq has been distanced and Kasper Asgreen is pacing him back. The others are looking around but they're struggling to get back in here. Shambles.

35:22 for AG2R, sixth place so far.

10 finishers so far, and here's how it stands

Trek-Segafredo set off, and that's the final team! We're just over half an hour from knowing the result and the fall-out.

UAE Emirates lose two riders in short order! They're down to four riders with 10 minutes still to race.

Here's UAE a little earlier.

Arkea-Samsic hit the line with two riders and they clock 35:20.

Over in Italy, stage 2 of Tirreno-Adriatico has just finished. Here are the report, results, and photos from that one.

DSM come to the line and Romain Bardet sprints clear alone. He stops the clock on 34:43, good enough for fourth place so far, three quarters of a minute down on Jayco.

Jumbo-Visma fastest at the mid-way point!

DSM were a smaller fraction of a second slower than Ineos, so they're fourth so far but effectively on the same time as the British team.

Here come Bora-Hansgrohe with five riders!

Four of them clip off in the sprint for the line and Schachmann stops the clock on 34:20, which is second fastest so far and 21 seconds down on Jayco.

UAE are down to three... and now two! 

Pogacar has just one teammate as he heads into the final kilometre. 

It's Mikkel Bjerg leading out the two-time Tour champion...

Pogačar sprints clear of his teammate and this is a lightning final dash to the line - surely the fastest 500 metres so far.

34:18 for UAE and Pogacar. That's second fastest and 19 seconds down on Yates.

Here come FDJ and it's Stefan Kung leading out David Gaudu...

Second best time! Great ride from FDJ for 34:09, just 10 seconds down on Jayco. 

EF Education-EasyPost are in the mix at the intermediate, 10 seconds down at the intermediate checkpoint. 

Jumbo-Visma motor past TotalEnergies stragglers. They've lost Olav Kooij but look strong with the remaining six with 6km to go.

34:45 for Movistar.

Trek-Segafredo are the last team through the checkpoint, 32 seconds down on Jumbo. Mads Pedersen is going to lose the yellow jersey and Mattias Skjelmose is going to lose some time on GC.

Final 3km for Jumbo who still have six riders. 

Pierre Latour rampages to the line for Total Energies, stopping the clock on 35:05, which is the 10th best time so far.

Jumbo down to five with 1500m to go.

Another one peels off under the flamme rouge

Foss, Tratnik and Van Hooydonck are the three left with Vingegaard.

Foss pulls off with 250m to go

Tratnik takes over and Vingegaard sprints in second place, they get the fastest time!

Vingegaard was second over the line there but it makes no material difference. 33:55 for Jumbo-Visma, which is four seconds faster than Jacyo-AlUla and surely the stage winning time. 

In the Vingegaard-Pogacar battle, the Dane has taken 23 seconds on his rival. Taking out the Slovenian's 12 bonus seconds from the first two days, Vingegaard is up by 11 seconds.

Here were Jumbo in full flow

35:00 for Cofidis.

It remains to be seen who's the new overall leader. Van Hooydonck was there with Vingegaard at the line and has bonus seconds already. But Michael Matthew also has bonuses and was in the front on the opening day...

34:34 for QuickStep, who finish with two.

Here come EF and it's close!

That might just put Cort into the overall lead!

Cort was third yesterday and has bonus seconds, so started the day two seconds ahead of Van Hooydonck and on the same time as Matthews, so he should be in yellow.

Trek-Segafredo are our final team out on course and they have three riders.

And now it's two with 1km to go, Pedersen in yellow leading out Skjelmose.

Jumbo's time has already gone by so they are the winner's of today's stage.

Skjelmose takes it to the line and stops the clock on 34:40 as Trek take 8th place on the day. 

That's it then - all done.

Results

Here's how things now stand on GC

Let's hear from Jonas Vingegaard

Interestingly, Vingegaard sounds a little disappointed with the overall picture, gaining 23 seconds on Pogačar to move 11 in front of his rival, but wanting more. 

Magnus Cort is the new leader of Paris-Nice

And let's hear from the Dane

Jumbo-Visma out on their winning rider earlier.

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