Belgian Merlier wins crash-marred Tour de France stage

AFP | Dunkirk

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Belgian Tim Merlier pipped Italian Jonathan Milan right at the line to win stage three of the Tour de France at Dunkirk yesterday, as Mathieu van der Poel retained the race lead.

Bahrain - Victorious team’s German rider Phil Bauhaus finished third.

The stage was marred by a series of falls, but the two favourites for the title Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard fin-ished safely in the main pack and remain in second and third place overall behind Van der Poel.

The flat 179km run from Valenciennes along the Belgian border was marked above all by a nasty fall that caused Jas-per Philipsen to quit with severe grazing and a suspected fracture.

The fall ripped the green best sprinter’s jersey from Philipsen’s back two days after he won the opening day sprint, as he slid along the road in the 70kph crash.

There were three more falls, including two nasty looking ones in the finale with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, Merlier’s teammate, involved.

Merlier, 32, grew up just over the border from Dunkirk and had been hoping to win the opening stage on Sunday.

“That was a mess,” Merlier said of the falls. “I lost a great deal of energy getting in position but it was a good bike throw. I knew I’d beat Milan.”

Lidl-Trek’s Milan led over most of the final 150m, but even without sealing the stage win his efforts were still rewarded as he inherited the green sprint points jersey from the stricken Philipsen.

Van der Poel in the leader’s yellow jersey is the grandson of French cycling legend Raymond Poulidor, who came second in the Tour de France seven times, but never won and also never got to don the yellow tunic.

Another Belgian, the national champion Tim Wellens, gave cross-border fans even more to celebrate as he won the day’s only climb, the 2.3km ascent of Mont Cassel at 31km from the finish line.

The 34-year-old will now hold the king of the mountains polka dot jersey overnight.

Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin is in the best under-25’s rider’s white jersey afer staying in the finishing mix in all three stages.

Regional police said one million spectators had lined the roadsides on the opening day, and while rain dissuaded that kind of turnout for stage two, huge crowds turned out again for the run to Dunkirk.

The eleven bikes stolen from outside the Cofidis team hotel early Sunday were all found before the stage’s end -- five of them were recovered abandoned in a forest early yesterday with the others being tracked down by the police later in the day.