Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) made amends for his narrow defeat 24 hours earlier by winning the third stage of the Tour of Germany to claim the overall lead on the penultimate day.
Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas was again well outside the first ten finishers, crossing the line at one minute, seven seconds back in 43rd.
Mohoric won the stage from Trier to Merzig, covering the 177 kilometres in a blanket finish with Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) second and Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) third.
Having lost out on the line to Maximilian Schachmann in Friday’s photo finish in Trier, Mohoric made no mistake in Merzig by passing Politt in the final metres to take the stage and claim the red jersey as Tour leader.
Berlin-born Schachmann finished seventh and is now six seconds behind Mohoric in second overall.
Schachmann was hampered in the final stages as he swerved to avoid a crash involving several riders just before the finish.
“I had to slow things down, it was annoying at the moment, but it’s not over yet – it’s going to be a tough, tough fight (on Sunday),” Schachmann said. “I had a hard time keeping my position in the final straight and then the crash happened.”
The Tour de Germany, which is back after a ten-year hiatus, concludes on Sunday on the final stage from Lorsch to Stuttgart over 207.5km which has three climbs.
Tour of Germany 2018 – stage 3 results (Trier – Merzig):
| 1 | Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) | 4:12:28 |
| 2 | Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 3 | Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 4 | Jasha Sutterlin (Movistar) | ,, |
| 5 | Nick van der Lijke (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) | ,, |
| 6 | Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 7 | Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 8 | Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 9 | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 10 | Jurgen Roelandts (BMC) | ,, |
General classification after stage 3:
| 1 | Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) | 12:37:56 |
| 2 | Maximilian Schachmann (Quick-Step Floors) | +06” |
| 3 | Nils Politt (Katusha-Alpecin) | +10” |
| 4 | Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 5 | Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | +20” |
| 6 | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data) | +24” |
| 7 | Damiano Caruso (BMC) | +25” |
| 8 | Warren Barguil (Fortuneo-Samsic) | ,, |
| 9 | Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | +26” |
| 10 | Pieter Weening (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) | ,, |
