Yesterday Alaphilippe took yellow in an exciting stage where most of the riders who were featured in our preview did very well (Alaphilippe – 1; Hirschi – 2; GVA -4; Higuita -5; Lutsenko -7). Today it will be up to Quickstep to keep hold of the Maillot Jaune, potentially setting up Sam Bennett for his first TDF stage win in the proces!
The third stage continues this Tour’s trend of having no easy stages in the first week. Will we see a simple mass-sprint, or will the difficult first half of the stage cause some damage to the sprinters?
Let’s take a look at the route!
Stage 3 takes us from Nice to Sisteron. In the first half of the stage, the rider’s won’t find a single km of flat terrain, with the Col du Pilon(8.4 km @ 5.1%) and the Col de la Faye(5.3km @ 4.8%) as the biggest obstacles. The climbs aren’t overly difficult
The climb’s aren’t overly difficult and the sprinter’s should all be able to survive today’s stage, but their legs will sue be tired before we begin the final stretch to the finish line.
Just like stage 1, the final 5km are on wide-open roads, with the only obstacle being a roundabout at about 2km before the finish. Another stage where the big sprin-trains can show their strength!
Perfect racing weather for this stage, with no rain, a little breeze and temperatures around 20 degrees.
After yesterday’s hard mountain stage, the GC-favorites will probably keep low and let the sprint-teams control the race. There aren’t that many opportunities for the sprinter’s so they will definitely want to take a shot at this stage.
All the sprint teams like Deceuninck(Bennett), Lotto(Ewan), Sunweb(Bol) and NTT(Nizzolo) will be looking to keep the pace low in the first half of the race so their sprinters will hold on and save as much energy as possible. The best way to do this is to let a breakaway go ahead quickly, and then control the pace and reel them in in the final 40km.
As we said in the preview for stage 1, Quickstep has the strongest train amongst all the sprint teams. Bennett’s sprint on stage 1 was a little disappointing, but this weather should suit him better and without a chaotic leadout he should be the favorite for today.
Sam Bennett
No excuses of bad weather or a chaotic leadout anymore today. He has the best train of them all, so he should deliver.
Caleb Ewan
On paper, he should be one of the main challengers today. His stage 1 sprint was very disappointing, so he must be looking for revenge. However, the team already lost 2 of it’s best rider’s in Gilbert and Degenkolb which will prove to be detrimental for his changes.
Giacomo Nizzolo
Had a weird ride in stage 1, at some point it looked like he was suffering from some kind of injury or stomach ilness. Still sprinted to 7th in the end and argueably had one of the fastest accellerations but was blocked, so the form still looks to be okay.
Cees Bol
Keep an eye on the Dutchman today!
Kristoff/Pedersen
They excelled in the tough, chaotic, bad-weather sprint of stage 1, mainly due to them being on the heavier side compared to the other sprinters. In a normal sprint however, they will likely be losing out to the pure sprinters.
Wout van Aert
Jumbo Duty
No rain, perfect conditions and the best lead-out train, this one is Sam Bennet‘s to lose!
