Tour of Britain 2024 Stage 3

September 5, 2024 Stage 3 takes the riders from Sheffield to Barnsley over 2,700M of elevation with the final climb of Hound Hill topping out 4KM from the finish. The parcours should provide great racing roads and plenty of opportunity for attacking riders. There was no break with 80KM to go as the wind and aggressive racing were causing groups to constantly form and come back together. It wasn't until 60KM to go that a group did get away including Gil Gelders of Soudal Quickstep, Julius Johansen of Sabgal-Anicolor, Jonas Abrahamsen of Uno-X Mobility, Nickolas Zukowsky of Q36.5, Tobias Foss of Ineos, Noa Isidore of Decathlon AG2R Development Team, Louis Sutton of Team GB, and Oscar Nilsson-Julien of Van Rysel-Roubaix. They quickly built a 40 second lead as Israel-Premier Tech and Bahrain-Victorious were scrambling to organize a chase. Sutton was best placed, just 31 seconds off the GC lead. The peloton split under the pressure of Nick Shultz of Israel-Premier Tech who cut the bunch down to just 30 riders and the gap from 1 minute to 30 seconds with 21KM to go. Gelders was first to attack from the break but only managed to shed Zukowsky. Sutton was dropped next which removed the GC threat to Israel-Premier Tech. The remaining riders in the break had just 12 seconds as they hit Hound Hill with 6KM to go and were quickly caught. Tom Pidcock of Ineos attacked over the top but did not manage to get a gap. Israel-Premier Tech got control of the bunch to lead in for an uphill sprint. Abrahamsen got to the front from 1KM to 500M for his teammate Markus Hoelgaard who had to launch from that point. It was way too far and he was passed by Edoardo Zambanini of Bahrain-Victorious. Zambanini looked good with 150M to go but Stephen Williams of Israel-Premier Tech came around to take a convincing win. Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep got a run from behind, pulling level with Zambanini. With 25M to go, they came together and Zambanini nearly crashed. He held it up but was overtaken and had to settle for third place. Williams now holds a GC lead of 16 seconds on Oscar Onley of DSM-Firmenich. That lead will be tough to lose for Williams given the final three flat stages of the race.