Tour de France stage 3: Tim Merlier delivers win in Dunkerque on messy flat stage scattered with crashes

Soudal-QuickStep's Tim Merlier sprinted to victory on a crash-affected stage 3 of the Tour de France, just beating Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in a photo finish as the pair were separated by only centimetres at the finish.

Merlier and Milan were among the survivors of a tense finale, which saw two crashes in the final 3km, after sprint favourite Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) had already crashed out earlier in the stage.

Merlier's final throw just earnt him the stage win, with Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) coming up in third.

Milan's Lidl-Trek team had seemed the most organised in the final 1,500 metres of the stage, but the Italian quickly became isolated and Merlier – who had also been on his own – was able to surf the wheels and carry enough speed to come up and pass Milan right at the last moment.

"It was a really hard battle. It was difficult to be in position," Merlier said at the finish. "I lost Bert [Van Lerberghe] before the last corner, but I must say the team did an incredible job in the last 5km, but then the real chaos started and it was really difficult to find position.

"I think from two kilometres I fought back from behind to come back in position, and I was in the wind all the time, and only with 500 metres to go I found a bit of slip stream. I know next to Milan is always difficult."

A crash at 3km to go saw various riders hit the deck, including Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

Just round the final turn, another handful of riders went down as various wheels slide out on the corner, including Cees Bol (XDS-Astana) and Alexis Renard (Cofidis).

The messy final came after a fairly sedate day. There was no breakaway on the flat, 178km stage from Valenciennes to Dunkirk, and the average speed was as low as 40 kph as the peloton took a bit of a break after two hard days in Northern France.

Amidst the relative calm, there was one impactful moment of chaos, when green jersey Jasper Philipsen crashed heavily at the intermediate sprint, injuring his shoulder and putting an end to his race, just two days after winning stage 1.

In the overall standings, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) holds onto the yellow after finishing in the main group, whilst all the riders who crashed will be given the same time as the stage winner, having gone down within the 5km safe zone.

How it unfolded

The 178km route of stage 3 was almost entirely flat, bar one 2.3km rise in the final 40km, so it looked nailed on for a sprint. After the flag dropped, a few riders did try to attack and form a breakaway, but after around 20km, the attempts dried up and it became clear that there wasn't going to be a day-long break, making an uneventful stage even less eventful.

Just because there was no break didn't mean it was an easy or relaxed day, however, with winners of the first two stages, Alpecin-Deceuninck, taking control and setting a steady pace all through the first half of the stage, keeping the peloton on its toes.

Still, very little happened in the middle part of the stage as the peloton wound down from Valenciennes to Dunkerque. Things started to heat up towards the intermediate sprint with 60km to go as the sprinters' teams started to get in order, but when they reached the sprint, disaster struck for Philipsen, who crashed heavily.

He collided with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) who had just bumped into Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty), and whilst those two stayed up the Belgian hit the tarmac heavily. He got up, with his skinsuit ripped around his shoulder and back, but as the doctors examined him, it was clear he couldn't continue.

Avoiding the crash, it was Milan who took maximum points at the intermediate point. There was a brief settling after the sprint, as teams regrouped after Philipsen's incident, and there was also some ongoing tension between Alpecin-Deceuninck riders and Cofidis and Intermarché.

With 38km to go, another squeeze in the middle of the peloton saw a trio of riders crash, whilst up front Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) set off in a rather unexpected attack. However, with a mountain point up for grabs, Wellens was in a position to move into the KoM lead, and therefore take the jersey from Pogačar, who would then avoid extra podium duties post stage.

Wellens' gap grew very fast, up to a minute and a half in just a few kilometres with no impetus behind, so he easily claimed the one point atop Mont Cassel to take the polka-dot jersey. He immediately sat up over the top, and was soon back in the bunch with 27km to go.

There was a bit of an entente into the final 20km, with not quite as much tension as there may usually be in a sprint stage, with no break to chase and some caution after Philipsen's crash. With 10km to go, things started to heat up and the fight for sprint position began proper.

With 3km to go, another crash at a pinch-point saw a handful of riders go down but even more held up, with riders including Thomas and Evenepoel affected, whilst Red Bull sprinter Jordi Meeus looked to come down the heaviest.

Going into the final 2km, Lidl-Trek looked the most organised with two riders leading in front of Milan, but this quickly fell away and the Italian was alone earlier than he would have liked, moving onto the Picnic PostNL lead-out.

Merlier was in an even worse position, surfing on his own in the final 500m, but he found his way up to Milan, and in the final push for the line, it was the Belgian who just got the better of the Italian.

In a small consolation, Milan will move into the green jersey after adding points to his haul, and due to former points leader Philipsen's abandon.

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