Tim Merlier won the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday. The Belgian won the mass sprint after a stage marred by a hard crash by green jersey wearer Jasper Philipsen. Mathieu van der Poel lost his teammate from the race but retained the yellow jersey.
Merlier narrowly beat Jonathan Milan in the mass sprint and celebrated the second stage win of his career in the Tour. He previously won the third stage in 2021.
Danny van Poppel finished eighth, the best Dutchman. Cees Bol crashed hard with other sprinters just before the sprint. Van der Poel stayed out of trouble and can wear the yellow jersey for at least one more day.
The third stage from Valenciennes to Dunkirk could rightly be called a walking stage for a long time. The pace was extremely slow, especially in the first hours. Yet no rider managed to escape successfully.
Despite the slow pace, the peloton was not only startled by a crash in the sprint. Philipsen’s earlier in the day attracted the most attention. He crashed and took his teammates with him in an equally hard fall from the pink cloud they were on together.
Van der Poel’s Team Falls From Cloud Nine
“The Tour can’t be broken anymore for sure,” Van der Poel said shortly before 6:00 PM on Sunday. The Dutchman was in a hosanna mood after his stage win and winning the yellow jersey. He took over the leader’s jersey from teammate Philipsen, who won the opening stage a day earlier.
Less than 24 hours later, the euphoria turned into minor at Alpecin-Deceuninck. Philipsen, who should have provided the third stage victory in a row for the team on Monday, was lying on the asphalt with severe abrasions.
The points jersey wearer was knocked off his bike by Bryan Coquard on the way to an intermediate sprint. The Frenchman seemed to lose control of his handlebars after coming into contact with the Belgian Laurenz Rex.
Philipsen fell on his shoulder at high speed. Doctors from the Tour organization took care of the sprinter, but it soon became clear that he could not continue. Philipsen no longer had a chance of winning, and so there was a chance for the other sprinters.
Merlier Takes Sporting Revenge
After Philipsen’s elimination, Merlier took revenge for the first stage, in which he did not get to sprint, with the stage win. That was true for Dylan Groenewegen in Dunkirk. He could not find a good starting position and finished a disappointing fourteenth.
Van der Poel briefly accelerated the sprint for Kaden Groves, the only remaining asset of Alpecin-Deceuninck for daily success. He soon proved to be hopeless, after which Van der Poel stopped pedaling. Despite possessing the yellow jersey, it is now a matter of licking the wounds at that team.
On Tuesday, the Tour continues with a hilly stage starting in Amiens and finishing in Rouen. Prior to that stage, there will undoubtedly be the necessary discussions behind the scenes at Visma-Lease a Bike after an extremely turbulent day.
Just before the third stage, Wout van Aert expressed his dissatisfaction with critical statements from Jonas Vingegaard’s wife about the team’s tactics. To Van Aert’s disbelief, she claimed that Visma cannot focus on both stage victories and winning the overall classification with Vingegaard.