Tour de France stage 3 - Live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the third stage of the 2022 Tour de France.

Today the peloton will be taking on another sprint on the last of three stages of the Danish Grand Départ.

Once again, there are three fourth-category climbs on the route and there's a small possibility that wind affects the race – don't bank on it, though.

You can check out our comprehensive preview of stage 3 here

Today the fans are out in force again, here cheering on home favourite Jonas Vingegaard in Vejle.

Check out the results from yesterday and the GC heading into stage 3 here.

And you can take a look back at stage 2 with our full report and gallery here.

We're just under half an hour away from the start of stage 3. Here's the map of the parcours.

After two days racing on the islands of Zealand and Funen in the east of the country, today the Tour will head onto the Danish mainland as the riders race south from Vejle to Sønderborg.

Yesterday, we saw Fabio Jakobsen beat Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen to take the first road stage of the race. The trio will likely be featuring up at the front of the sprint to the line again today.

Fabio Jakobsen is the stand-out favourite the win today.

There looks to be a handful of riders in the second tier of favourites. Caleb Ewan suffered a mechanical yesterday but should be up there, Wout van Aert was quick to finish, while Jasper Philipsen wasn't far behind either.

Peter Sagan took sixth place, while Mads Pedersen was on the podium but doesn't have the high-end speed of some other finishers here. Dylan Groenewegen was quite far out of contention in eighth, while Danny van Poppel did well to take fourth yesterday.

20 minutes to the stage start and the riders are signing on ahead of the start.

Today we'll have Wout van Aert in yellow, Fabio Jakobsen in green (though Van Aert leads), Magnus Cort in polka dots, and Tadej Pogačar in white.

The riders are just starting to roll out for the neutral zone of stage 3 now...

It's a short roll-out. Just a couple of kilometres.

182km to go

And the riders pass km0 to start stage 3

Magnus Cort is immediately on the attack. Nobody with him yet.

No reaction from the peloton.

179km to go

Cort now a minute up the road. Is this it?

23km to go until the first climb, where Cort would mathematically secure the polka dot jersey for another day.

Cort gives a thumbs up to the TV moto following him. 2:20 for him now.

Green jersey Jakobsen and yellow jersey Van Aert chat before the start of stage 3.

169km to go

Four minutes for Cort now. Nobody else has bothered to go up the road with him.

Will the Dane keep going after the first climb of the day?

A look at Cort out on the road on his own today.

5:40 for Cort now. QuickStep and Bora are among the teams at the front of the peloton, though they're just rolling along rather than leading the chase.

Cort is around 10km away from the first climb of the stage, the Côte de Koldingvej.

161km to go

6:40 for Cort now.

QuickStep, BikeExchange, Bora, Lotto, UAE all present towards the front of the peloton now.

Cort approaching the KOM in a few kilometres.

155km to go

Huge crowds greet Cort as he starts the climb 6:20 up on the peloton.

Cort duly heads over the top alone and adds a point to his KOM lead. He'll now be in polka dots on Tuesday, too.

The race has done something of a lap around the start town of Vejle so far before taking on that climb. The riders are now heading south, led by Cort.

150km to go

BikeExchange led the peloton over the top of the hill. Now Philippe Gilbert leads for Lotto Soudal.

5:40 to Cort.

Cort passing the crowds out in the solo break

Guerreiro forgives Küng as more details emerge of Tour de France altercation

'It was a normal racing situation. It's fine, we're friends' says Portuguese rider

143km to go

Cort has 4:55 at the moment. No moves from the peloton after the climb.

136km to go

Alpecin-Deceuninck have sent a man to the front of the peloton to join in with the pacemaking.

40km covered in the first hour. 4:20 for Cort.

Cort's advantage keeps coming down slowly. It's just under four minutes now. Nobody else is going to jump out of the peloton and animate the day, it seems, and Cort looks likely to add another two points to his KOM lead.

Gilbert continues on the front ahead of the entire QuickStep team.

A look at the peloton, led by QuickStep.

119km to go

3:40 for Cort now. Just under 20km to go to the next climb of the day.

How to watch the 2022 Tour de France – live TV and streaming

Don't miss a minute of the biggest bike race in the world as Pogacar, Roglic, Thomas and more do battle this July

15km to go until Cort hits the second climb, the Côte de Hejlsminde Strand.

108km to go

Still 3:40 for Cort. Nothing happening in the peloton at the moment.

The peloton pass by the big crowds out on the road.

Cort having fun out on the road.

Cort is heading towards the 100km to go mark now.

He'll be racing up to the next climb, the Côte de Hejlsminde Strand, too.

100km to go

500 metres from the top for Cort.

Cort duly takes another point over the top of the climb.

A shot of the peloton speeding along today.

Just a few kilometres to go until Cort passes the intermediate sprint. He's 2:45 up on the peloton.

Jumbo-Visma move up in the peloton in anticipation.

Cort will take the points at the sprint. The green jersey battle is about to erupt behind him.

20 points for Cort.

17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points on offer now.

1km to go for the peloton.

Van Aert gets a leadout, as does Jakobsen.

Ewan and Sagan also up there.

Van Aert takes the 17 points ahead of Jakobsen, who didn't go too hard there.

Ah no it was Laporte who just edged second there...

Van Aert 17, Laporte 15, Jakobsen 13, Sagan 11, Ewan 10.

88km to go

Cort's advantage has been cut down to 1:15 after that intermediate sprint.

EF, Lotto, Bahrain, BikeExchange all up towards the front of the peloton now.

The gap to Cort stabilises at 1:30.

Now the Tour organisation has issued a correction to the intermediate sprint ranking.

Jakobsen was second so he takes 17 points. Laporte took third for 15 points.

16km to go until Cort reaches the final climb, the Côte de Genner Strand.

72km to go

Peter Sagan and Neilson Powless stop for mechanical attention before getting going again.

Alpecin, BikeExchange, Bahrain, DSM, QuickStep are now up at the head of the peloton.

Another point for Cort would see him on six in two days and secure in the polka dots until stage 6.

62km to go

Cort is heading towards the final climb of the day now.

The climb is the highest point of the stage at 61m above sea level.

2.7% average for 1.7km for Cort.

1:25 for Cort at the moment.

Authorities return Kaitlin Armstrong to US after arrest in Costa Rica

'Armstrong has arrived back in the US and will be held in Harris County (Texas) Jail awaiting extradition to Austin' say U.S. Marshals

Meanwhile, the gap to Cort has quickly come down after that final hill. He's sat up and is about to be brought back by the peloton.

53km to go

Cort is back in the peloton now after his effort off the front.

The peloton now speeding along quite quickly as they head towards the final 50km.

Little to report at the moment with the peloton all together and racing towards the finish.

41km to go

It's the same selection of sprint squads leading the peloton right now.

Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) stops with a mechanical before quickly getting going once again.

36km to go

There likely won't be any wind in the final here but it should still be a hectic one as the sprinters and their teams battle.

Jumbo-Visma, Groupama-FDJ up at the front currently.

31km to go

Andrea Bagioli stops with a mechanical.

No one team is taking control at the moment. There's a variety of teams spread across the front of the peloton.

27km to go

It's not surprising to see which teams are up there – Trek-Segafredo, Lotto Soudal, Groupama-FDJ, Jumbo-Visma, QuickStep-AlphaVinyl

The teams continue to block across the front of the road as they head into the final 20km.

19km to go

The peloton continues to roll along in formation, spread across the road. No attacks coming and none likely.

A look at the peloton rolling along in formation towards the finish.

Ineos Grenadiers and Bora-Hansgrohe are also up towards the front.

Jakobsen, Van Aert, Pedersen, Sagan, Philipsen, Groenewegen, Van Poppel, Kristoff – they're all up there in the peloton ready for the sprint to the line.

13km to go

Into the final 15km now and it's a waiting game ahead of the finish.

Van Aert and Jakobsen both very visible towards the front of the group in the heli shots.

A few spots of rain appearing...

10.5km to go

A crash! It's a sizeable one in the middle of the peloton but everybody looks like they're getting going quickly afterwards.

Into the final 10km now and it's full speed ahead to the finish.

Speeding across the bridge into Sønderborg.

8km to go

Jumbo, Lotto, QuickStep, Ineos all with trains up front.

Trek-Segafredo also up there with several men.

Many of the biggest names look to be in a good position near the front at the moment.

7km to go

Jumbo and QuickStep most in charge at the front. Ineos protecting their GC men.

The peloton tackles a chicane without any problems.

Asgreen leads for QuickStep

Ineos moving up again now as they near the 3km mark.

6km to go

DSM are lined up behind Ineos.

QuickStep continue with two leading the way.

Trek behind QuickStep. Jakobsen moves up to his teammates.

A few riders get back in after the crash. A group lies at 34 seconds down.

Jakobsen with five in front of him now.

Cattaneo working now.

5km to go

Ineos continue on the other side of the road, staying safe.

DSM's train moves up to the front.

22 seconds back to those caught in the crash.

4km to go

It's still QuickStep in full charge at the front. 

They're keeping the pace high on this run-in.

Intermarché with a few riders move up.

DSM moving up to challenge QuickStep now.

Now Alpecin-Deceuninck are coming back to the front with force.

3km to go

Van der Poel leading them up.

QuickStep vs Alpecin at the front.

Van Aert has one man ahead of him and behind QuickStep.

Van der Poel pulls off with 2.5km to go.

QuickStep on the left, Intermarché up the middle, Alpecin on the right.

2km to go

The riders are flying along into the finish. Still competing trains up front.

QuickStep have stuck up there leading the way.

1km to go

Intermarche and QuickStep lead the way into the final kilometre.

Final turn onto the finishing straight. All though ok.

Van Aert right up there with Jakobsen.

Now Jakobsen has been swamped!

The sprint is launched at over 200m to go!

Van Aert and Sagan down the barriers.

Groenewegen was also up there with Philipsen. It's so close!

Groenewegen has edged it to win stage 3!

Groenewegen edged out Van Aert for the win. Philipsen was very close behind, while Sagan was very close in fourth too.

Sagan was angry as he crossed the line. It looked like he thought Van Aert had pushed him too close to the barriers in that dash for the line there.

A look at the photo finish at the line.

Here's what Groenewegen said after the finish...

"It was a long way [back]. I want to say thanks to my team, family and friends to bring me back to the Tour in a good shape. It's beautiful.

"Not physically but mentally it was a hard time, of course. After all that happened... This is for my wife and my son. It means a lot for me.

"Yesterday I was a  little bit angry at myself. Today we were a long time boxed in. I was also involved in the crash at 9km to go but they brought me back in position and we stayed calm. In the end I was on the right side. Amund [Grøndahl Jansen] brought me in a good position on the left corner. I struggled a bit there but at the finish line it was enough and I still can't believe it."

Groenewegen celebrates his very close win after crossing the line.

Several major names have lost time in that late crash. Rigoberto Urán and Michael Woods are among them.

Check the stage result and updated GC here...

Tour de France: Groenewegen wins stage 3 sprint in Sønderborg

Van Aert second in bunch sprint, maintains overall race lead

Check out the replay of the final kilometre here...

Groenewegen celebrates his stage victory on the podium.

Van Aert continues in the race lead.

He's also in green as the points leader.

Cort is in the polka dot jersey after his two days in the break.

Finally, Tadej Pogačar remains in the white young rider's jersey.

Urán, Caruso, Haig shed 39 seconds after late crash at the Tour de France

Woods, Pinot, Meintjes, Froome, Mollema also drop time after stage 3 crash at 10km to go 

We'll have news and reaction from stage 3 coming in through the evening so stay tuned for that.

Jakobsen: My admiration for Groenewegen is completely gone

Dutch sprinter struggles to forgive Dylan Groenewegen after the severe the crash he caused in 2020

Ewan blames Sagan and Van Aert for crash near-miss at Tour de France

More frustration on stage 3 for Australian sprinter but he believes luck will turn

Sagan angry with Van Aert for closing him against barriers in Tour de France sprint

'I was already near the barriers and so to avoid touching them, I had to push him back' Sagan said

More to come from us this evening but that marks the end of the live coverage. Keep checking back on Cyclingnews for the latest news from the Tour de France.