Critérium du Dauphiné 2024 Stage 3

June 4, 2024 Sunshine, road-side lavender, and agricultural helicopter shots were almost enough to make you believe it was a day in the Tour de France. Nicolas Prodhomme of Decathlon AG2R, Rémy Rochas of Groupama-FDJ and Harry Sweeny of EF-Education EasyPost set off in the break, gaining a 2 minutes 35 second lead with 66KM to go. Uno-X Mobility had the Yellow jersey and honored it by being the primary chasers in the peloton. At 40.7KM to go, the peloton had the break at 1 minute and Chris Juul Jensen of Jayco AlUla attacked the bunch. It took 4KM but Juul Jensen made the connection to the break. Valentin Madouas of Groupama-FDJ tried to do the same but he got stuck in a chasse patate for 10KM and eventually was reeled back into the peloton. Rochas dropped out of the break with 23KM to go leaving Groupama-FDJ without any representation up front. The break was caught with 2.6KM to go as teams were preparing for a reduced bunch sprint, much like Stage 2 the previous day. At least 60 riders were still in the bunch as they went under 1KM to go. Krists Neilands of Israel-Premier Tech was the first to move at 800M. He was reeled in at 500M to go, with his teammate Derek Gee immediately counter attacked. Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ was the only one to get on terms with Gee. Grégoire took over on the front but seemed to be losing steam with 150M to go. Gee had a moment to recover and came over the top of Grégoire with 125M to go to take the stage win and the GC lead. Grégoire held on for second and Lukas Nerurkar of EF-Education Easy Post led the rest in for third, 3 seconds behind Gee.