Stage 3 of the Tour Du Maroc goes 157km from Ait Tamajoute to Bin El Ouidane. The stage is the first of the two mountain stages in the race and features more climbing than any other stage in the race. GC leader Dombrowski will see this stage as a chance to put his competitors away early. However, the last climb to Ait Tamajoute summits with 18k to go, so getting big gaps may be hard.
The stage features 6 KOM points, including 2 Cat 1’s and one sprint. The KOM leader is also a GC contender, Meintjes, so it seems like that jersey could change hands today.
The stage favorites show up as:
The climbing starts early and as they crest the first small rise just 3 k into the stage we already have 14 riders out front.
With 148 km to go the break starts the first climb of the day which is a 15km Cat 1 at 5.7%. There is a small descent included and it is flat at the top but parts are very steep. The front group is 10 riders strong and has 1’38 on the peloton. Then there are 2 riders 54 seconds in front of the peloton. 2 other riders cracked and were hauled back - Peng and Tiller
The 10 riders in the break are: Newton Hacecky Teuns Nardin Cosnefroy Kolar Vliegen Zakarin Gebremedhin Higuita
The 2 bridging are: Matsumoto Grashev
Teuns is the best placed at 41st on GC 2’12 back.
With 10k to go in the climb the break is beginning the hardest section with a lead of just under 2 minutes. Grashev has joined the front but Matsumoto has not and Petrovski has attacked the peloton and is trying to ride across to the break.
Teuns is pushing the pace in the breakaway. He, Hacecky and Kolar are all strong climbers.
With 7k to go in the climb they have dropped Nardin and Zakarin. Matsumoto is back in the pack but Petrovski has made it up to the front group.
Kolar takes up the pace making and with 5km to go in the climb there are only 4 riders left in the front group. It gets flatter for the rest of the climb so maybe they can rejoin. The peloton is keeping the pressure on and the gap is only 2’28.
The front does regroup a little but just as 3 riders join back up the attacks for the KOM points start and with 1k to the top Teuns makes what appears to be a decisive move.
Teuns takes the point ahead of a late push from Hacecky. Kolar is third.
There is a short descent and then another climb, a cat 3. The break is in pieces so it unclear who can stay out front. The peloton has slowed down and is now 4’06 behind. We also have a lot of riders off the back including Rowe who is over 10 minutes behind the peloton with 130k still to go. A number of the other sprinters also have significant deficits.
Teuns and Hacecky fight out the next KOM as well with Teuns winning again. He now has 22 points and the virtual KOM leaders jersey. Newton is third. Kolar is the only other rider with them.
We have 12 km of descending and then 4km of climbing to the next KOM sprint, a Cat 2.
At the base of the Cat 2 Gebremedhin has rejoined the front group. Grashev is 27 seconds behind, Higuita is 42 seconds behind and Petrovski is at 1’08. The remainder are either back in the pack or soon will be. The pack is at 5’08.
With just under 2k to the KOM point Teuns attacks and gets a gap.
Teuns opens up almost a minute, but with 0.5k still to go, he is feeling the burn and Hacecky is tracking him down.
Teuns has misjudged this one and Hacecky flies by him.
Kolar takes third. The overall virtual KOM standings now look like this: Teuns 30 Hacecky 24 Kolar 16 Meintjes 16
We now have about 45km before the next climb so the break, which has splinted completely, will have a chance to regroup. The peloton goes over the Cat 2 with a 5’49 gap to the front group
With 85km to go in the stage the peloton has been riding hard with young American star Neilson Powless doing a lot of work. The lead is down to 3’33.
Up front the group is back to 6 including: Newton Hacecky Teuns Kolar Gebremedhin Grashev
Higuita and Petrovski are still stuck in between.
Rowe is on his own 24 minutes behind the peloton. Kragh Andersen, Drapac and Nizzolo are also in trouble.
The break passes the sprint point and Teuns takes the points. He will have some bonus seconds should GC become a possibility. But the peloton is only 3’20 back with 75km to ride. Th second Cat 1 starts in 15 km but much of that is at a substantial grade before the official start of the climb.
Still 4km to the start of the climb and 11km to the top and Grashev has been dropped. The other two never made it across and are back in the pack. The lead is 2’29 with Gazelle and Farfetch doing the work.
After almost 10km of climbing the official climb starts. It is a brutal 6.6km at 12.1%. The break have 2’37.
As Kudus goes to the front in the peloton Teuns and Newton have been dropped up front.
Kudus is setting a steady pace and with 5km to climb. Up front Hacecky is riding away from the others, he has 2'20 over Kudus.
Kudus’ has pulled 18 riders clear. They are 1’51 behind Hacecky who still has 3km to climb.
The front group includes most of the favorites, Anacona is the top name to be dropped. Grmay who finished strongly yesterday has also been dropped.
Shortly thereafter Kudus eases off and the lead stretches back to 2’20 for Hacecky but he looks exhausted. Anacona rejoins the Yellow Jersey group. The Yellow Jersey looks comfortable and has Aru protecting him.
Hacecky crests the summit alone. He now has the virtual KOM jersey and, with Teuns back in the pack and the big points for the day done, he should hold on to it. He has 2’40 on the peloton and 2’17 on Kolar and Gebremedhin the only other riders still ahead.
The slowing of the pace results in the peloton expanding to 44 riders including Grmay.
With 40k to go in the stage and 10k to go to the second-to-last KOM point (a cat 3) Hacecky has 2’29 over the peloton. He started the day 3’25 down so no GC lead for him today but the stage seems possible if the peloton remains passive.
But soon after cycleYorkshire, Repsol, Gazelle and Moser-Sygic all decide to contribute and the lead is quickly down to 1’25. The referee’s car in the valley below the chasers marks Hacecky’s position.
Hacecky holds on to take the Cat 3 but the gap is below 1 minute and they should be pulling the motorbikes out of the gap.
Hackecky is able to hold his lead on the downhill and start the last climb with a 1 minute cushion. The 4 km climb is followed by 18km of descending and flat to the finish.
But a steady pace by Hosek on the climb is too much for Hackecky and with 1km to the top he is back with the pack. He will have the KOM jersey and a solid lead in that competition for his efforts. The peloton is 54 riders strong.
Rowe is just over 1 hour behind and still has 50k to ride. He isn't the only one in danger of missing the cut. Drapac, Kragh Andersen, and Nizzolo are all on their own and well behind.
There are no attacks on the climb but over the top Yates has a dig.
14 riders are dropped as a result but none of them is among the favorites. Yesterday Boswell took care of things for Dombrowski, today it is Aru who takes responsibility for the chase.
With the descent over and just 10k of flat left Yates is back in the fold. From there the peloton seems happy to wait for the sprint and some of the dropped riders rejoin swelling the peloton back to 43. With 2km to go they start the sprint. Kunshin has Martin well positioned.
With 1.4k to go Kunshin drops off and Martin launches. But there is a long way to go and the final 1k has a significant slope.
With 700 meters to go Martin is still strong. Behind him are Talansky and Monsalve.
300 meters to go and they can’t get by Martin. He took bonus seconds yesterday so he could take the jersey today.
But he can’t hold and with 200m to go Talansky and Monsalve sweep by him with the Yellow jersey close behind.
And Monsalve takes it ahead of Talansky, Dombrowski, Martin and Formolo. The bonus seconds will mean Dombrowski definitely keeps the jersey.
6th through 10th go to: Anacona Wellens Ji Meintjes Amador
So far only time bonuses separate the favorites. The next two stages are sprints so we will have to wait for stage 6’s summit finish to see if more significant blows can be landed. Dombrowski adds the points jersey to his collection while Kudus retains white. Monsalve moves into 2nd on the GC dropping Hirt to third.
But in the team competition Desigual was only able to put 2 riders in the front group as Kozhatayev was dropped over the last hill and never got back on. As a result they lose the lead to Team Tinkoff. But it is very close, Gazelle is on the same time as Tinkoff and Desigual is just 7 seconds behind.
We turn things back to the sprinters tomorrow but we will have less of them as Kragh Andersen, Rowe and Drapac have all missed the time cut along with 5 other riders. Nizzolo made it with a minute or so to spare.
Tour du Maroc 
