It's a nice day in France today - although we haven't arrived in Nice quite yet. Mostly sunny yet pretty cool - we're still in February after all - but with no wind we have perfect conditions for a great day of cycling!
Home of just about 1,000 people, Vimory is just a small village on our way South - but despite its smallness has been the location of a major religious battle in the 16th century, where mercenaries from Germany and Switzerland - hired by protestants - suffered big losses gainst the catholics serving King Henry III.
Today, we're hoping to only get battles among the teams, and that biggest losses will just be in terms of time and points. After yesterday's stage, several riders will want to take revenge - but more on that later.
The course of stage 3 leads us straight South, for 200 kilometers - only stage 7 is almost 20km longer. We'll have two intermediate sprints again, the first being held in Gien, after 32 kilometers already. Will the sprinter teams try to hold everything together until then?
The second one follows in Thaumiers, with about 45km to go. The finale is pretty bumpy, but not hard enough to have the stage rated as hilly. And we don't have a single KoM sprint today, meaning Nych will keep his jersey for at least one more day.
In terms of stage win favorites, the bookies clearly haven't reinvented the wheel. All but one name are the same as yesterday - Moser takes Silvestre's place on that list. On top, we again have our three fastest men: Gaviria, race leader Coquard, and Ewan. Samolenkov again gets two stars, despite having been nowhere at all yesterday. Hsu and Kemboi are in the second category as well. The already mentioned Moser gets one star, alongside Van der Sande, Lo Cicero and Stallaert.
Yesterday's runner-up Santos doesn't get a mention - we'll see if he or another leadout rider can pull off an upset today!
But now, the riders are ready, so let's jump into the action!
Just like yesterday, we don't need to wait long for a first attack! Stojnic leads the move, followed by Vahtra, Dujardin and Sureda. Let's see if we get some more!
It's pretty much the contrary, though. Stojnic is done quickly and drops back to the pack, where Lampawog, Dekker and Jacobs are trying to break free. Sendeku is however having none of it - it looks like at least ISA - Hexacta are targeting the first intermediate sprint.
Not only them, though, as Gayral and Kortsidakis contribute to the chase, shutting down all attempts.
Nonetheless, the breakaway trio has established a 1'20" gap now, with 20km left until the sprint in Gien.
Maybe this time, then? Eekhoff and Carr - both had already tried to get away earlier - are attacking again.
But it's been the same game for some kilometers now: some riders attack, Sendeku shuts down the move, things calm down - repeat.
However, the only ones benefitting from that stop-and-go fun in the pack are the escapees, as their advantage has grown to almost two minutes. It's actually looking more like the sprinter teams don't want the intermediate sprint points, but they just don't want more than three riders up front.
And these three indeed arrive at the sprint in Gien together, where Vahtra takes maximum points.
The pack is 2'05" back, and the other riders seem to have finally understood that the top sprinters' teams won't let them move away now.
By the way, it's now Sendeku, Gayral and De Bod doing most of the work, with ELCO - ABEA having vanished from the front of the bunch.
Fast-forward to the final 55 kilometers. The teams of Gaviria, Ewan and Coquard are clearly setting some serious pace now, and all three teams have 3-4 riders working now. Which obviously is unfair against just 3 escapees, but that's cycling.
The leading trio had a maximum gap of about 3'30", but it's now down to 1'40". With less than 10km left until the sprint in Thaumiers, they will still pick up the points there, though. But in terms of stage win, they clearly look to be doomed.
It's an easy win for Sureda - which isn't surprising, given that he's the strongest sprinter of the trio. For the remaining points, the officials have to consult some video footage. They come up with the following verdict:
None of this trio was close enough to take over the virtual GC lead thanks to bonus seconds - although Dujardin still is in virtual yellow due to the breakaway's gap to the pack.
Isostar seem to have a clear gameplan today, as Gayral sets a horrendous pace already with more than 40km to go. The pack indeed is very stretched out; if he had some crosswinds, gaps would be likely to occur, but we'll see what their strategy is today.
As the pack gets closer and closer, we see the usual attacks in the breakaway, with everyone fighting for the "Combatif du Jour". Sureda looks to be the strongest - but not by much, as he doesn't manage to definitely get rid of his two companions.
Yesterday the break lasted until the 20km arc; today it looks to be a little more. Still, Sweeny clearly has his prey in sight.
The breakaway makes it to the finish line - unfortunately for them, an additional 17km circuit has to be done before they can fight for line honors. But their little promenade is over, like a colleague of mine likes to say.
We see the three top favorites Gaviria, Coquard and Ewan already well positioned, alongside some other sprinters - in this image you can spot Moser, Van der Sande and Garcia Cortina, whom we haven't been talking about yet.
With 10km to go, ELCO - ABEA have clearly taken up the reins, with 4 in the first 5 positions - and Coquard already in 4th place! Ewan and Gaviria aren't quite as aggressive yet, rather enjoying the peloton's slipstream for now.
Coquard has dropped back a little by the 5km sign - but what a presence by his team, with 7 ELCO - ABEA riders in the first 15 positions of the pack!
ISA - Hexacta are building up their train as well, with Santos and Baska ahead of Ewan.
Surprisingly, Isostar's conclusion from yesterday's messy sprint preparation seems to be that having their own train isn't worth it, so Gaviria just takes Coquard's wheel today!
Behind him, we have Lo Cicero and Van der Sande, while Kemboi and Swift are following Ewan. Silvestre, Hsu and Stallaert are positioned pretty well, too - but then we have to move back quite a bit to find Dainese and Garcia Cortina.
All others are even further back, with Moser being first in the line, then Riabushenko, Einhorn, Van der Kooij, Abdul Halil and Larsen.
And guess who's again close to the tail end of the peloton? Yeah, Samolenkov. No clue what he's doing, but he'll surely have a serious conversation with his manager tonight.
3 kilometers to the line, and now we have two of the three trains we expected. The one on the right isn't in perfect formation yet, though, as Ewan is ahead of Santos, with Baska leading them like he should.
Koumpetsos - Bouglas - Coquard however looks as great as it can, perfect setup for the race leader to make it two in a row!
Behind the yellow jersey there's however a small gap, with Lo Cicero seemingly unable to hold the Frenchman's wheel! Carr isn't a sprinter and can't be expected to get there, either. And then we have green jersey Kemboi, with Belgian champion Stallaert some positions further behind - but where's the rest? Where are all those sprinters? And where has Gaviria gone?
Well, here he is! It almost looks like he was waiting for his teammates to catch up again, as we see his leadouts Peak and Rickaert getting back to him! And don't be fooled by the 20km road sign - that was one lap ago, we just have 3km left!
The other unmentioned stage favorites aren't in great position, either, but what has happened to THE top favorite within just 2 kilometers? Can he pull off a miraculous move and still get back to the front?
To be honest, it looks very unlikely, given that ISA - Hexacta and ELCO - ABEA have opened a massive gap with 2 kilometers to go - and only Kemboi is able to keep up with them! So it looks like we'll indeed have a 3-way sprint for the win - but with one participant clearly not being the one we expected!
Van der Sande and Swift are now pulling behind, with Lo Cicero there as well - but it looks like an impossible task to catch up with those 7 up front!
1,500 meters to go for the leaders - and that's what the situation looks like from the peloton's point of view. Van der Sande and Swift are riding away, too, but the win should go to one of Coquard, Ewan or Kemboi. Or can Santos or one of the other leadouts surprise everyone?
Baska and Koumpetsos are gone, and under the red kite we now have the final leadouts Santos and Bouglas in action! Ewan, Coquard or Kemboi? Who takes it?
It's an early lead for yellow jersey Coquard, who already hits the front with 700m to go! Ewan is almost level, while Kemboi somehow lost the Frenchman's wheel and even has to ride around Bouglas now!
And we clearly see that there's no danger coming from behind; while Van der Sande is looking really strong and is leaving everyone else behind, it's almost impossible that he'll come back to the front of the race.
Kemboi has now left Bouglas behind and has found his top speed! Coquard looks to be riding away from Ewan, who just can't match the race leader's speed here - but can Kemboi really upset the two top favorites?
Just 300m left, and Ewan has cracked! Kemboi is looking good - but Coquard isn't fading and holds onto his bike length advantage!
Santos is having a great sprint again - could he even beat his leader twice in a row?
Further back, Van der Sande is about to overtake Koumpetsos and Baska - if he doesn't crack, that could still be a nice 6th place for him.
With only 200 meters remaining, Coquard looks like the clear winner. Kemboi is going really strong, but he just can't get any closer. On the contrary, it looks like Ewan has found a second wind and might still beat the Kenyan!
Back-to-back wins, in the yellow jersey, in his home country - what a fantastic race this is for Bryan Coquard! His team did a fantastic job today, and he finished off their work in the best possible way, getting them a really dominant win!
His tiny fly in the ointment will however be Salem Kemboi taking a great 2nd place, as this means that the Kenyan will keep his green jersey! With stage ranks 1, 7 and 2, you clearly can't say that this isn't well-deserved!
Same stage winner, and same 3rd place as yesterday, as Caleb Ewan repeats his stage 2 performance. However, today he had the perfect launchpad to get the win - but he didn't have the legs. Two podium spots in a row isn't anything to scoff at, though!
4th should go to Santos - but Van der Sande is approaching so fast that we'd rather wait for the images to have confirmation!
Indeed, after a surprising 2nd place yesterday, Emerson Santos manages to salvage 4th place against a furiously approaching Tosh Van der Sande - who clearly will be upset about his positioning, as he really was incredibly strong today and could have easily been involved in the podium fight!
After the ISA - Hexacta pair taking 3-4, we get two more pairs now taking 6-7 and 8-9; in order, those are Joeri Stallaert, Fabio Silvestre, Wojciech Pszczolarski and Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier. The final spot in the Top 10 goes to Georgios Bouglas, who did a great job leading out Coquard and then just sat up.
And where's Gaviria? Well, here. He ends the stage in 30th place, behind his leadout Rickaert. While many other sprinters missed out on a good result as well - for the 2nd time in a row mostly - the Colombian's result is just a disaster. Within 2 kilometers, he gave everything away - it will take a long evening of analysis to find out what exactly went wrong there!
By the way, although there were quite some gaps between several groups at the finish line, the timekeepers decided to ignore them and to award everyone the winner's time - just like yesterday. All GC favorites were up front anyway, so fortunately we won't have too much of a controversy because of that decision.
But let's actually talk about some more positive things now. Yesterday we photographed him in his team jersey, today it's the yellow one for a change - but the result is actually the same: Bryan Coquard wins his 2nd stage in a row, this time ahead of Salem Kemboi and Caleb Ewan.
And we actually have the exact same order in the GC, with the Kenyan passing the Australian again. Otherwise, we don't have any notable changes. Coquard has however extended his lead to 22" and 24" respectively - those additional seconds probably won't help him to keep the jersey tomorrow, though...
As mentioned before, Salem Kemboi was able to defend his lead in the points standings! Bryan Coquard has however come really close now, trailing by just 2 points - meaning even an intermediate sprint could make the difference between these two now! Caleb Ewan and Emerson Santos now share 3rd place, with both being 20 points down (34 vs. 54).
No KoM sprint today means the result of the only KoM sprint so far - yesterday - is still the result of the KoM standings: Artem Nych leads ahead of David Dekker and Joshua Gayral. Tomorrow, the Russian will definitely need to have some great legs if he wants to keep the jersey for another day!
No GC changes also means no U25 changes, therefore Niklas Larsen is still on top of the standings, leading 5" ahead of Barnabas Peak and Petr Rikunov.
And last but not least, De Stijl Cycling still lead the team classification, with Grieg-Maersk trailing by 8 and Evonik - ELKO by 10 seconds.
That's all from day number 3 in the 2022 Race to the Sun. Lots of sprinters, and especially one team, have some work to do to find out what went wrong in the last two days - while one other team probably won't stop celebrating tonight.
Tomorrow will be the first test for the GC contenders, with the finish line being on top of a hill. Let's see what happens there - I hope you'll be back to follow the action on stage 4!
Paris - Nice 
