Stage 3: Granville › Angers – 223.5km
After a brief interlude of excitement on Stage 2, the Tour gets back to sprinter-friendly racing in Stage 3. It’s a long one at 223.5-kilometers, but the only categorized climb is a Cat. 4, 25km in. After that, it’s mostly flat all the way to the finish, where the road does angle upward ever so slightly at around 2.5% for the final kilometer.
Coming into the race I saw this as a Marcel Kittel day with André Greipel close behind (thanks to the stage length), but then Mark Cavendish went and took Stage 1. Still, it’s early. Too early to anoint anyone the clear top dog in the bunch kicks just yet.
Kittel looked strong at Utah Beach, and Greipel was at least in the mix, so I’ll stick with my initial impression for now. Of course, it would be no surprise at all to see Cavendish take this.
The distance could boost Peter Sagan‘s chances a bit. He was very strong in the Stage 2 finale, but perhaps even more impressive was his third-place finish in Stage 1. That bodes well for the sprint stages to come.
Alexander Kristoff, Michael Matthews, Bryan Coquard, Sam Bennett, Dylan Groenewegen, and John Degenkolb could also feature in the bunch sprint likely to close out Stage 3.
VeloHuman Stage 3 Favorites
1. Marcel Kittel | 2. André Greipel | 3. Mark Cavendish