Caleb Ewan timed his effort to perfection to win the third stage of the Tour de France in a bunch sprint at the end of a 198-km hilly ride through the Alpine foothills on Monday.
Sam Bennett looked in control but the Irishman had probably underestimated the headwind and settled for second place as he watched Lotto-Soudal fastman Ewan whizz around him to snatch his fourth stage win on the Tour. Giacomo Nizzolo took third place.
Julian Alaphilippe retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
“In the last kilometre I was a little bit too far forward so I dropped back a bit into the wheels then that gave me a bit of time just to rest the legs a little bit,” Ewan explained. “In the end it worked perfectly. Coming from behind is a bit of a risk but I found my way through the barrier and I came with a lot of speed.”
Ewan was proud to win again on the biggest stage, a year after taking three stage victories on his first participation in the Tour.
“I’m so happy to get another win and then prove last year was no fluke. Hope to come back more years and keep winning. We have to take every sprinters’ opportunity we can this year because they are quite rare this year.”
Tuesday’s fourth stage is a 160.5-km effort from Sisteron to Orcieres-Merlette for the first summit finish of the race, with Briton Adam Yates, who trails Alaphilippe by four seconds overall, eyeing the yellow jersey.
Tour de France 2020 – stage 3 results (Nice – Sisteron):
| 1 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | 5:17:42 |
| 2 | Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 3 | Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) | ,, |
| 4 | Hugo Hofstetter (Israel Start-Up Nation) | ,, |
| 5 | Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 6 | Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 7 | Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 8 | Matteo Trentin (CCC) | ,, |
| 9 | Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) | ,, |
| 10 | Niccolò Bonifazio (Total Direct Energie) | ,, |
| 11 | Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 12 | Tom Van Asbroeck (Israel Start-Up Nation) | ,, |
| 13 | Jonas Koch (CCC) | ,, |
| 14 | Jack Bauer (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 15 | Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 16 | Hugo Houle (Astana) | ,, |
| 17 | Marc Soler (Movistar) | ,, |
| 18 | Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) | ,, |
| 19 | Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 20 | Simone Consonni (Cofidis) | ,, |
Tour de France 2020 – general classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | 13:59:17 |
| 2 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +04” |
| 3 | Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) | +07” |
| 4 | Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) | +17” |
| 5 | Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 6 | Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 7 | Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 8 | Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
| 9 | Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) | ,, |
| 10 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 11 | Primoz Roglic (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 12 | Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) | ,, |
| 13 | Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) | ,, |
| 14 | Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) | ,, |
| 15 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 16 | Alberto Bettiol (EF Pro Cycling) | ,, |
| 17 | Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 18 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 19 | Enric Mas (Movistar) | ,, |
| 20 | Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
