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Caleb Ewan produced a dazzling final sprint to win the third stage of the Tour de France as Julian Alaphilippe clung to the yellow jersey.
The Australian Lotto Soudal rider timed his sprint perfectly with a strong headwind at Sisteron to pass Peter Sagan and snatch victory from Irishman Sam Bennett.
It is his fourth Tour stage victory after three victories on his debut last year.
“The guys did a great job keeping me up front,” Ewan said.
“This is the most important race in the world and I am very happy to get another victory and to show that last year was not a coincidence. I hope to return and continue winning.”
Ewan displayed excellent bike handling skills in navigating a chaotic finish and avoiding the penalizing headwind, until the last moment.
The 26-year-old narrowly avoided Sagan’s rear wheel and the right-side barrier to get behind the wheel of Bennett before kicking with tremendous speed 50 meters to go.
“I was a little ahead of the last kilometer, so I went back and rested a bit,” he added.
“Coming from behind is a bit risky, but I passed the barrier and in the end I had the speed.”
European champion Giacomo Nizzolo finished third, and Frenchman Hugo Hofstetter was fourth.
Former three-time world champion Sagan faded to finish fifth, but scored enough points to replace first-leg winner Alexander Kristoff with the green dots jersey, which the Slovak aims to win for the eighth time he expands. the record.
It was a high-speed finish after a largely uneventful day, with Frenchman Jerome Cousin passing 110km from the front alone before being swept by the peloton with 16km to go.
Cousin had been on a getaway with his compatriots Benoit Cosnefroy and Anthony Pérez, who were fighting for the King of the Mountains points.
Pérez had taken the virtual lead from Cosnefroy in that qualifying, but was then forced to abandon the race with a broken collarbone after getting punctured on a descent and crashing into the Cofidis team car.
Alaphilippe avoided trouble maintaining the race lead, with Britain’s Adam Yates still second four seconds behind, while defending champion Egan Bernal has moved up two places to sixth overall.
Result of the third stage
1. Caleb Ewan (Aus / Lotto Soudal) 5 hours 17 minutes 42 seconds
2. Sam Bennett (Ire / Deceuninck-Quick-Step) at the same time
Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita / NTT Pro)
4. Hugo Hofstetter (De / Israel Start-up Nation)
5. Peter Sagan (Svk / Bora-Hansgrohe)
6. Edward Theuns (Call / Trek-Segafredo)
7. Cees Bol (Ned / Team Sunweb)
8. Matteo Trentin (Ita / CCC Team)
9. Bryan Coquard (Fra / B & B Hotels – Vital Concept)
10. Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita / Total Direct Energie)
General classification after stage three
1. Julian Alaphilippe (Fra / Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 13 hours 59 minutes 17 seconds
2. Adam Yates (GB / Mitchelton-Scott) + 4 seconds
3. Marc Hirschi (Swi / Team Sunweb) + 7 seconds
4. Tadej Pogacar (Slo / UAE Team Emirates) + 17 seconds
5. Davide Formolo (Ita / UAE Team Emirates) At the same time
6. Egan Bernal (Col / Ineos Grenadiers)
Tom Dumoulin (Ned / Jumbo-Visma)
8.Sergio Higuita (Col / EF Pro Cycling)
9. Guillaume Martin (Fra / Cofidis)
10. Esteban Chaves (Col / Mitchelton-Scott)
