Mark Cavendish turned in a vintage performance to snatch his second stage win of the 2016 Tour de France and write another line in the great race's history books.
Andre Greipel punched the air after the pair crossed the line in Angers, but the German’s arm soon dropped and Cavendish quietly pumped a fist before replays confirmed his victory — with the Tour’s official timekeepers putting the gap at six thousandths of a second.
Dan Martin remained tenth overall after Monday's third stage, rolling home as part of the main bunch in the same time as Cavendish.
The Irish Etixx-QuickStep rider didn’t contest the sprint and placed 32nd. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) continues to lead overall, and will begin stage four 14 seconds clear of Martin.
Sam Bennett is continuing to recover from his bad stage one crash. He had an easier day yesterday by virtue of the bunch's decision to go slow for much of the stage prior to reeling in the two riders out front, Armindo Fonseca (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) and Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie).
Bennett did sit back when the peloton finally ramped up its pace but conceded just two minutes and three seconds. He was already in better shape at the start than he was the previous day and should feel improved again by Tuesday’s race to Limoges.
Cavendish won stage one of the Tour on Saturday to wear the yellow jersey for the first time in his career, and this latest success gives the 31-year-old 28 Tour stage wins, moving him level with Bernard Hinault in second on the all-time list behind Eddy Merckx on 34.
Five-time Tour winner Hinault was on hand to congratulate Cavendish in person on the podium.
“When I started my career, for me to at any point be mentioned in the same sentence as Eddy Merckx or Bernard Hinault is more than I could have dreamed of,” Cavendish said.
“There’s no way I could sit here and compare myself in any way to those two greats.”
Greipel and his fellow German Marcel Kittel have dominated sprints in the last three Tours, leading many to question whether Cavendish’s time had passed before this race began on Saturday.
Three stages in, that notion has already been dismissed.
The 31-year-old said his winter move to Team Dimension Data — the African-based squad which supports the Qhubeka charity — has given him an entire new purpose on a bike.
“It’s given me a new lease of life,” he said. “It’s given me a cause to ride for rather than just pressure to win.
“I’m very fortunate to have ridden for the biggest teams in cycling. They were successful years, I had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends. But with the biggest teams and the biggest funds comes a lot of pressure to win.
“Now it’s something more than just winning, more than being a moving billboard. We ride for Qhubeka. It’s about getting 5,000 kids on bikes in Africa. It’s close to every rider’s heart. It could be a spiel but it’s not, it’s 50 percent of what we do with results the other 50 percent.”
Whatever the inspiration, there can be no questioning the results. On Saturday, Cavendish had to come around Peter Sagan to win while leaving Kittel in his wake, and here he was a full bike length behind Greipel as they barrelled into the last 50 metres.
“It was touch and go if I’d pass him,” Cavendish said of his rival from Lotto-Soudal. “I didn’t get him with the sprint, I got him with the lunge to the line so I was pretty fortunate with that.”
Brian Coquad of FDJ was third, while world champion Sagan came home fourth to retain the yellow jersey he took off Cavendish on Sunday.
With Sagan in yellow and his Tinkoff team controlling the peloton, they kept the pace slow to aid their ailing leader Alberto Contador, and the long 223.5km run from Granville — passing through Fougeres where Cavendish took his only win in last year’s Tour — took just a shade under six hours for the peloton to complete.
“It was nice,” Sagan joked about the leisurely pace. “I was thinking at one moment we would stop for coffee like old times.”
That allowed solo breakaway rider Armindo Fonseca of Fortuneo Vital-Concept to quickly establish a lead of more than 11 minutes as he rode on home roads through Brittany, although it slowly ticked down.
When the pack drew within five minutes of him, Direct-Energie’s ever-willing Thomas Voeckler bridged across, and the two led the race on the approach to Angers before being swallowed up 8km from home.
The 24-year-old Dan McLay, riding for Fortuneo Vital-Concept, was ninth — his second top-10 finish after taking 10th place on Saturday.
Chris Froome finished near the front of the pack, 22nd on the day, moving the Team Sky man up to fourth overall, still 14 seconds off yellow.
The presence of the general classification riders near the front on sprint days has been the cause of increasing debate in the peloton as teams jockey for limited road space at the front.
While not interested in contesting the sprint, teams with overall contenders in their ranks are desperate to avoid time losses caused by getting caught behind crashes, but the battle for real estate can cause those crashes in itself.
In his press conference, Sagan called on the UCI to change the rules which currently see general classification times neutralised if there is a crash inside the final three kilometres of a stage.
“We want to ride with sprinters for the sprints,” the 26-year-old Slovakian said. “We don’t want to fight also with the GC guys. It is very dangerous.”
Tour De France positions
Leading final positions after Stage 3 (Granville — Angers — 222km): 1 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Dimension Data 5hrs 59mins 54secs, 2 Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal, 3 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Direct Energie, 4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team, 5 Edward Theuns (Bel) Trek-Segafredo, 6 Sondre Holst Enger (Nor) IAM Cycling, 7 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Etixx — Quick-Step, 8 Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits, 9 Daniel Mclay (Gbr) Fortuneo — Vital Concept, 10 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo, 11 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha, 12 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange, 13 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin, 14 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Lampre — Merida, 15 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx — Quick-Step, 16 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, 17 Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale-Drapac, 18 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits, 19 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team, 20 Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto Soudal all at same time
Selected Others: 22 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, 32 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx — Quick-Step, 34 Adam Yates (Gbr) Orica-BikeExchange, 41 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky all at same time, 141 Luke Rowe (Gbr) Team Sky at 31secs, 157 Ian Stannard (Gbr) Team Sky at 52secs, 186 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Argon 18 at 2mins 3secs, 191 Stephen Cummings (Gbr) Dimension Data at 2mins 8secs
Leading General Classification after Stage 3: 1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 14hrs 34mins 36secs, 2 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx — Quick-Step at 8secs, 3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team at 10secs, 4 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky at 14secs, 5 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Alpecin, 6 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team, 7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff Team, 8 Tony Gallopin (Fra) Lotto Soudal, 9 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team, 10 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx — Quick-Step, 11 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Cannondale-Drapac, 12 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange, 13 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin, 14 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo, 15 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team, 16 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team, 17 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Team Katusha, 18 Adam Yates (Gbr) Orica-BikeExchange, 19 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre — Merida, 20 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Orica-BikeExchange all at same time
Selected Others: 45 Geraint Thomas (Gbr) Team Sky at 38secs, 70 Mark Cavendish (Gbr) Dimension Data at 1min 39secs, 118 Daniel Mclay (Gbr) Fortuneo — Vital Concept at 7mins 5secs, 151 Luke Rowe (Gbr) Team Sky at 9mins 0secs, 154 Ian Stannard (Gbr) Team Sky at 9mins 21secs
