Tour de France 2025 Stage 3

July 7, 2025 The third of three stages of the Grand Départ leaves from Valenciennes and heads North and West towards the sea on a near pan flat route to the finish in Dunkerque. The only bump along the 178 kilometers is the 2.4KM, 4% climb of Mont Cassel. The climb comes 32KM from the finish and should not trouble the pure sprinters so we hopefully will see a full peloton coming to the line together for a battle amongst the best sprinters in the world. Rain was coming down at the start and all of the riders were layered up in multiple rain jackets but there were plenty of smiles on the riders as they rolled towards KM0. Jonas Rickaert of Alpecin-Deceuninck rolled off the front after a few minutes and was followed by Matej Mohorič of Bahrain Victorious but neither of them seemed too interested in riding in the front all day. They both sat up and the bunch continued to roll easy until 156KM to go when Alpecin-Deceuninck started riding. Next to nothing happened for the next 75KM, it was just Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal Quickstep setting the pace. Other teams started to move forward with 83KM to go with a turn North coming in the town of Béthune. The wind was blowing at around 30KPH but it was coming from the North and would be a block head wind. The first action of the day came at the intermediate sprint in Isbergues at 61KM from the finish. Lidl-Trek and Intermarché-Wanty were neck and neck 500M from the sprint line. Alpecin-Deceuninck riders were sitting just behind Lidl-Trek but disaster struck when there was a touch of wheels and the ricochet caused Jasper Philipsen to crash heavily with other riders scrambling to avoid the crash. Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek won the sprint but it was generally uncontested due to the crash. Philipsen was forced to abandon the race in the Green Jersey which was a shame for him and the race. After all of the action, the bunch settled back into block formation with the wind blowing right in their face. With 37.5KM to go, Tim Wellens of UAE-XRG looked across the front of the peloton and let everyone know he was going up the road to take mountains points at the top of Mont Cassel. He chipped off and no one followed. Wellens took the points at the top in front of crowds that were ten deep and secured the lead in that classification. The bunch was 1 minute 40 seconds behind but Wellens sat up and free-wheeled until he was caught with 27KM to go. The race to the finish began with 15KM as the GC and sprint teams were fighting for position at the front. Under 5KM to go, Picnic-PostNL had numbers and were lined up on the right side of the road but it was next to impossible for any one team to hold their position given the width of the road. A crash about 60 wheels back with 3KM to go blocked the way for the rest of the peloton but GC times were taken at 5KM to go so everyone was safe. At 1600M, Groupama-FDJ led the bunch through a tight right corner but Lidl-Trek made their first appearance at the front and took over with two riders in front of Milan. Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep had no teammates and moved himself on to Milan's wheel with 800M. Lidl-Trek ran out of steam giving Picnic-PostNL an opportunity to take control for Pavel Bittner. Bittner opened up at 250M when his last lead out man pulled off but it was too early with the head wind finish. Milan came around at 200M with Merlier on the wheel. Merlier came level with the Italian and the pair hit the line with next to nothing between them. Only through a photo could we see that Merlier won by less than the depth of the rim. Phil Bauhaus of Bahrain Victorious came across in third but was a full bike length behind Merlier. There were no changes in time for anyone on the GC and the top GC favorites made through unscathed with the exception of Remco Evenepoel who came down in the crash at 3KM to go but came out of it without any real injury.