Date: Monday, 01 July 2024
The first sprint clash in the Tour de France was won by Biniam Girmay . The 24-year-old rider from Intermarché-Wanty managed to take control of the sprint after a chaotic final in Turin, ahead of Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud De Lie . Richard Carapaz crossed the line fourteenth and takes over the yellow leader's jersey from Tadej Pogacar
In a very tough opening weekend, the sprinters did not appear in the piece, but the fast men could indulge themselves today. The riders raced in the third stage of the Tour de France - over a distance of no less than 231 kilometers - from Piacenza to Turin, where a bunch sprint was the most likely outcome. There were three fourth category climbs along the way, but that was not expected to play a crucial role in the battle for the stage victory.
In the finish city of Turin, not only a stage win was up for grabs, but also the yellow jersey. After the second stage in the Tour de France 2024, the first four riders in the general classification (yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar , Remco Evenepoel , Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz ) were in the same time. The riders did not take into account time differences during the ride and at the finish, so Evenepoel only had to cross the line two positions ahead of Pogacar today to take over the yellow leader's jersey.
Riders take a day off
With Tadej Pogacar in the yellow jersey, the Tour peloton left shortly before noon for the longest stage in this Tour de France. While there was still a lot of enthusiasm for the early break in the first stages, no one now saw the point in going on the attack. It was therefore in vain to wait for some racing entertainment. After about seven kilometers, two riders from Uno-X Mobility decided to take the plunge.
Mathieu van der Poel, easily recognized by his rainbow jersey – photo: Cor Vos
Johannes Kulset (at twenty years the youngest Tour participant) and the tireless Jonas Abrahamsen – after two stages the leader in the mountain and points classification – joined forces. The two Norwegians were not hindered in any way and the lead quickly increased to one and a half minutes. However, this was short-lived, because Kulset and Abrahamsen decided to put their bikes aside and eventually rejoin the peloton.
Control of the sprinter teams
No other rider in the peloton appeared willing to ride ahead of the pack and so the sprinter teams decided to take control of the race. Lidl-Trek and Alpecin-Deceuninck only took one scenario into account today: a sprint. Tim Declercq and Silvan Dillier were put to work in the service of Mads Pedersen and Jasper Philipsen , perhaps the two biggest favorites for the stage victory. There was not much else to do, although Abrahamsen managed to grab another point for the mountains classification on the Côte de Tortone (1.1 km at 6.3%) – the first climb of the day.
Dillier and Declercq rode the most kilometers at the head of the peloton – photo: Cor Vos
Just under 140 kilometers from the finish, nervousness among the sprinters suddenly increased. There was an intermediate sprint in Alexandria and that was where Pedersen did the best. The Dane turned out to be clearly faster than Philipsen and Bryan Coquard and was able to add twenty points to his account, although the spoils at the finish (fifty points for the winner) were even more important. After this sprint intermezzo, calm returned and Dillier and Declercq took their positions again at the head of the peloton.
Fast forward to the second climb on the route – the Côte de Barbaresco (1.5 km at 6.5%) – with the summit almost eighty kilometres from the finish. Abrahamsen thought he had already secured his point on the fourth category climb, but Matteo Sobrero decided to put a stop to that. The Italian from BORA-hansgrohe raced to the top, conquering his first mountain point in this Tour, before being caught by the peloton again.
Then an attack.
While Sobrero slumped again, another rider took off. Finally. Fabien Grellier dared to do it and put his TotalEnergies team in the spotlight. The 29-year-old Frenchman solo created a lead of forty seconds. Grellier was given the space by the sprinter teams to be the first to reach the top on the last climb towards Turin, the Côte de Sommariva Perno (3.1 km at 4.6%).
Once at the top of this slope, the lone leader still had to cover a good fifty kilometers to the finish line. This was of course too much for Grellier, who did however gain something from his attack. The competition jury decided to award him the Prize for Combativeness. That was all Grellier could do. At the start of the last thirty kilometers, the peloton already caught him by the collar.
Nervousness rises in final kilometres
With Grellier swallowed up, the sprint trains could prepare for the apotheosis in the final kilometres. The pace suddenly increased and this did not help the nervousness. The peloton was startled by a first crash of Casper Pedersen before the last ten kilometres . The Dane of Soudal Quick-Step seemed to have been badly hit, but was able to continue his way. Not much later Bruno Armirail also fell, but fortunately without any serious injuries.
At the peak of the race, the battle for the better positions had begun in full force. The fast men tried to position themselves as best as possible. So did Philipsen, but the Belgian had to make do without the lead-out skills of Mathieu van der Poel in the final kilometers . The world champion suffered a puncture at a very unfortunate moment - about five kilometers from the finish - and would no longer play a significant role.
Girmay writes history on behalf of Eritrea, Carapaz in yellow
And the misery for Philipsen and Alpecin-Deceuninck was not over yet, because just before the penultimate kilometer, a dozen riders crashed in the chaos. The most famous name that was there and could not sprint: top favorite Philipsen. The fall also disrupted the preparation for the sprint, which gave us a somewhat chaotic run-up to the sprint. Several pilots arrived too early, although Lidl-Trek seemed to have good timing.
Jasper Stuyven managed to drop his leader Pedersen well with a great lead-out. The Dane then attacked, but was unable to continue his effort to the finish. Pedersen was remounted by Girmay, who in turn managed to keep it up. The rider of Intermarché-Wanty – who still got the chance to sprint in the absence of Gerben Thijssen – dealt with Fernando Gaviria and Arnaud De Lie . Pedersen eventually did not get further than fourth place.
Further in the top 10 we find the names of Dylan Groenewegen , Phil Bauhaus , Fabio Jakobsen , Davide Ballerini , Sam Bennett and Bryan Coquard . Just behind, Richard Carapaz crossed the finish line in fourteenth and this turned out to be enough to take over the yellow jersey from Pogacar. The latter was no longer in the first group after the crash in the penultimate kilometer, although the riders are placed in the same time.
