Finishing in the town of Tours, home to the finish of the late-season Paris-Tours race, stage 3 is another stage tailor-made for the sprinters. Another chance for McEwen et al to show they can make light work of three approximately 1km, Cat 4 climbs and three intermediate sprints to take the stage victory. The two later climbs, at 161.5km and 179.5km should make the selection for those contesting the sprint come 5 o'clock. The last time Tours hosted a stage was in 2000, and it welcomes the Tour back with a probable exciting sprint finish. This is a stage very well suited to a sprinter such as Fassa's Alessandro Petacchi; but without the presence of Ale Jet at this year's Tour, and a number of sprinters on song, look to riders such as Baden Cooke to stamp their authority on the early stages after a mostly forgettable couple of seasons since winning the green jersey in 2003.
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Tour de France Femmes 2026: All the yellow cards, fines, and penalties after a stage 7 where pee and sticky bottles sanctions dominated
Expensive nature breaks for Demi Vollering and two FDJ United-SUEZ teammates -
Volta a Portugal: Santiago Mesa awarded stage 2 victory in photo-finish sprint
Rui Oliveira maintains overall race lead -
'I really should have closed the gap straight away' – Demi Vollering harbours Mont Ventoux regrets as Niewiadoma-Phinney soars into Tour de France Femmes lead
'Until the finish line in Nice, all is possible' says FDJ directeur sportif Nicolas Maire -
No fairytale Mont Ventoux comeback for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot as team still without answers on underwhelming Tour de France Femmes
'Looking at last year's programme and this year's programme doesn't give us any insight for this moment, but we will do it, of course, afterwards' says team manager Rutger Thijssen
