2019 Tour de France Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2019 Tour de France is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Alaphilippe dominates stage 3\nBy Clara Beard
Julian Alaphilippe stormed to his third career win at the Tour de France after a late attack with 16 kilometres to go today, claiming a solo victory along with the yellow jersey. The Frenchman finished the 214 kilometre stage 26 seconds ahead of Michael Matthews (Sunweb), who won the reduced bunch sprint. Jasper Stuyven (Trek Segafredo) rounded out the podium in third.
"I’m speechless,” Alaphilippe said after the stage. “I don’t realize what’s happening to me. I knew this stage suited me. I managed to avoid any pitfalls and crashes. I felt good so I accelerated in the Mutigny climb but I didn’t think I’d go alone. I gave everything. I heard I was 30 or 40’’ ahead. It’s difficult to meet the expectations of being the favourite. I made it. I’m delighted."
At the start in Binche, Belgium, Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) kicked things off with a strong attack that drew out four other riders to join in: Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), Anthony Delaplace (Arkéa-Samsic), Paul Ourselin (Total Direct Energie) and stage 1’s most combative rider, Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis).
The five in the breakaway had a fast start to the day, helped along by a strong tailwind and a slight downhill section while extending their advantage to a maximum of more than six minutes. Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) rode tempo selflessly for race leader Mike Theunissen, spending more than 90 kilometres at the front before Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck Quick Step) assisted with 100km to go. It was the Dutch team’s involvement at the front of the peloton that began the chase, and the gap waned to three minutes quickly as the race turned inside of 100km to go.
When the latter part of the stage became more lumpy and classics-style, Wellens took the opportunity to attack his breakaway companions and forged ahead along on the classified climbs, gaining enough points to take over the KOM jersey from Greg Van Avermaet (CCC). However, the advantage was down to just a minute on the second to last climb, and by the time Wellens crested the cĂ´te de Mutigny, he was caught and passed by a motivated Alaphilippe.
“I broke away as we were hoping for a stage win with Caleb Ewan. It’s been a day with a tailwind,” Wellens said. “We rode fast. I was going well and I started to believe I could win the stage but I cracked and unfortunately, I got a puncture at the bottom of the côte de Mutigny. Without this incident, I could have gone further with Julian Alaphilippe but he would have dropped me somewhere anyway. I told the neutral service I’d stopped at the top of the climb for a wheel change but there was no one there to fix my bike and I felt a bit stupid. The polka dot jersey is a nice one. If possible, I’ll defend it.”\nNo team had enough organization or inspiration to catch the Frenchman, who held his advantage of fewer than 30 seconds to the finish in the champagne capital of France, Epernay. \n
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