2021 Tour de France Stage 3 Results & Recap
Stage 3 of the 2021 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
Merlier wins stage 3 after crash-marred day
Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) won stage 3 of the Tour de France in Pontivy today after a crash heavy stage that saw only 20 riders contest the final kilometres. Jasper Philipsen, Merlier's teammate, took second place ahead of Nacer Bouhanni (Arkéa-Samsic).
"I'm living a dream, I think. After the Giro, I was already very happy, but now to win a stage at the Tour, the biggest race in the world. I can't believe it," Merlier said after the finish.
"Mathieu said he was going to do the lead-out, and I said, 'you are crazy' but he loves to do it, so then Jasper Philipsen took over for the last 700 metres. It was a great lead-out and I just needed to go the last 150 metres. I looked back and I couldn't believe it, there was nobody else on my wheel. There was a crash, and so that would be the reason, I think.
"I can't believe this, it's a dream."
Race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), finished safely in the front group to keep the yellow jersey. Julian Alaphilippe is second, eight seconds behind and retains the green before tomorrow's flat 150km stage.
“It was a pretty complicated stage, a super nervous one," the Frenchman said. "There have been quite a lot of damages. I’m happy to have reached the finish line in one piece. We’ll evaluate with the team what has happened to us today. In the finale, we still had Davide Ballerini who was well positioned but I’ve seen Sagan crashing with Ewan, we were riding at 70kph so I’ve had to avoid them. It’s was a mentally demanding day that required a lot of focus. I’m happy it’s over.”
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