Where fears had arisen beforehand, it happened on Monday. The chaotic sprint in the third Tour de France stage ended in a major crash. Tim Merlier was the strongest in the mass sprint but admitted that he also found the finale too dangerous.
“That’s a poor excuse,” Dylan Groenewegen responded to NOS when asked about the dangerous finale in Dunkirk. “But if you just look at the last kilometer… It’s not great when you swing from left to right. With narrowings here and there.”
“Everyone looks for the shortest path and sprints full speed, but that doesn’t fit. Then spaces close, and there are too many crashes,” Groenewegen said. The Dutchman had to brake to avoid a crash and finished fourteenth.
Others could not prevent a crash, such as Cees Bol, Bryan Coquard, and Arnaud De Lie. They – like all other sprinters – had been warned beforehand about the dangerous finale.
“We all know it,” Groenewegen said. “But in the morning, we stand at the start and go all in. Afterwards, we all have an opinion, except for the winner. Maybe that’s also something for the teams to assess.”
Also Stage Winner Merlier Thought It Was Dangerous
Tim Merlier avoided the crashes and sprinted just ahead of Jonathan Milan to the stage win. Although Dylan Groenewegen had expected otherwise, Merlier also found the finale dangerous. “I have to put a lot of energy into being able to sprint and not hit the ground,” he said.
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Merlier Sprints Past Milan in the Final Meters and Wins Third Tour Stage
Van Poppel and Girmay Also Shaken
Danny van Poppel finished eighth – and thus as the best Dutchman – but was relegated due to his involvement in a crash. Afterwards, the Dutchman was also visibly shaken.
“Phew, it was a lot of commotion. You’re in a sort of tunnel vision, and nobody brakes for each other,” he sighed. “Yes, you’re a sprinter. That’s your job. But often it’s very close when it comes to sports at the limit.”
Biniam Girmay also made a shaken impression. “I heard it go wrong behind me a few times with crashes. It felt like I had a heartbeat of 300 at those moments,” said the winner of three stages in last year’s Tour to Eurosport.
The Eritrean from Intermarché-Wanty finished seventh but was mainly distraught. “I sympathize with the victims of the crashes. It was life-threatening. The only thing I thought about in the last hundreds of meters is how I would get into this hell safely.”