June 3, 2026
Today's third stage isn't materially different than what the riders have faced in the first two days. The bunch will set out from Habay and loop South to the edge of Belgian-French border before turning back to the North through Florenville. The Côte Le Terme is the hardest climb on the 176 km course. It rises for 1.4 km at 6.9% but it comes 92 km from the finish and will only serve to soften up the legs. There is an intermediate sprint in Neufchâteau before entering a circuit around the finish in Vaux-sur-Sûre. Before the bunch reaches the finish line on each lap, there are two intermediate sprints with bonus seconds available, one at 40 km and the other at 20 km to go. The lap itself is not too technical but the bunch will pass through a few small villages which always momentarily squeezes the peloton and builds nerves. The finish straight rises from 3 km out but only at 2.5% so another bunch sprint should be in the cards
Race Summary
Clouds were heavy at the start but the roads were mostly dry and it was smiles all around for the sign-on. After a few skirmishes early on, a group of six snapped the elastic to form the break of the day. The riders were Italian Champion Filippo Conca of Jayco AlUla, Jonah Killy of Tarteletto-Isorex, George Wood of Mg.K Vis Costruzioni e Ambiente, Jarno Bellens of Baloise Verzekeringen-Het Poetsbureau Lions, Senne Thonnon of Flanders-Baloise, and Alvaro Sagrado of Storck-MRW Bau. With 82 km to go, the group had 1 minute 50 seconds on the Modern Adventure led peloton.
The gap was under 1 minute as the break prepared to sprint for the mountains points atop the Côte de Montplainchamps. The group slowed way down until Thonnon hit out for the top. He was followed by Wood but neither seemed to know exactly where the line was. There were two lines separated by only 20 meters and they both were free-wheeling over what ended up being the official one but Wood was awarded maximum points. A few kilometers later, Conca went unchallenged at the intermediate sprint in Neufchâteau to continue Jayco AlUla's total domination of the bonus sprints so far in the first three stages.
A lull fell over the race as the riders made their way towards the first passage of the finish line. With 57 km remaining, Arnaud De Lie of Lotto Intermarché moved to the front and led the peloton through about 100 members of his fan club. They had flags and flares to celebrate De Lie as the race passed near his hometown of Libramont which is where yesterday's stage finished. When De Lie settled back into the bunch, the time gap came up on screen and it showed 2 minutes 25 seconds. It was still only Modern Adventure riding on the front and it could be perceived they were trying to tease out other teams to aid in the chase.
A change of direction and threat of cross-winds spurred the peloton into action which quickly brought 30 seconds off the gap. Conca rolled through the second of three intermediate sprints to take the prize uncontested. The break decided to work together to preserve their lead instead of fight for intermediate prizes because the gap was out to more than any break had gotten up to this point. They came up through the final kilometer of the lap and the road was steeper in places than expected. Particularly from 300 meters to 150 meters to go, the grade was at least 5% and would be something to remember come the finish to not go too early. Sagrado led the break across the line with 38 km remaining and a gap of 2 minutes 7 seconds.
The gap was still 2 minutes with 32 km to go and NSN Cycling decided to come to the front with the entire team to get the bunch moving. Netcompany-Ineos arrived 2 km later and put the race in the gutter on a short exposed section of the course. They made the race hard but only those at the very back were distanced. NSN Cycling continued the push and with 23 km to go, only about 60 riders were still in contact with the peloton and the gap to the break was down to just 40 seconds.
Conca took the final intermediate sprint at 21 km to go but the peloton had them in sight as NSN Cycling had all seven riders lined up on the front. We've seen disfunction creep into the breaks this week but the riders today were committed and forced the peloton to work to close the last few seconds. Conca and Killy emptied the tank and were the last two caught with 11 km to go. NSN Cycling, Modern Adventure, and Jayco AlUla took turns pulling while the other World Tour teams like Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Netcompany-Ineos, Movistar, and Lotto Intermarché all seemed content to sit back and watch.
The bunch relaxed and spread across the road until 3.5 km to go when the gradients tipped up and positioning began for the sprint. Alpecin-Premier Tech started proceedings but Netcompany-Ineos swarmed the Belgian squad with 2 km remaining and looked strong with four riders together. Moments later, a Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe rider was moving up in the middle of the bunch and got to about fifth position when he crossed his front wheel on another rider and went down. The crash was like a bomb going off and nearly the entire peloton crashed or were held up as a result. Only about ten riders made it through the mess. Netcompany-Ineos had three including Kim Heiduk, Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe had four with Jordi Meeus, Laurence Pithie, Danny van Poppel and one other, Alpecin-Premier Tech had two, and Lotto Intermarché and NSN Cycling each with one. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe set up the lead out with Meeus and van Poppel in front of Pithie. When the sprint finally opened up with 200 meters to go, only Pithie and Heiduk were real contenders. It was a drag race between the two at 150 meters but the Kiwi had more in the legs and took the victory with a clean set of wheels. Heiduk sailed into second place with Krists Neilands of NSN Cycling in third.
GC times were neutralized due to the crash but bonus seconds were still awarded at the finish. Heiduk moved into the race lead by 3 seconds over Meeus, Ben Oliver, and Pithie. There are nine riders within 10 seconds and 43 riders within 13 seconds so the GC is still well in play with two stages to come. Five riders were forced to abandon the stage as a result of the crash including Milan Menten, Jon Barrenetxea, Arne Marit, Asbjørn Hellemose, and Louis Marx.