Mads Pedersen takes stage 3 victory at Paris-Nice

Denmark's Mads Pedersen [Trek-Segafredo] earned victory on stage three of Paris-Nice on Tuesday.

Pedersen held off Bryan Coquard [Cofidis] and Wout van Aert [Jumbo-Visma] to take the win on the 190.8km trek from Vierzon to Dun-le-Palestel.

Sam Bennett dropped back as they approached the category 3 climb of the Cote de Le Peyroux and came home was over 11 minutes down on the winner. His Bora-Hansgrohe team-mate and compatriot Ryan Mullen was 5:46 down on Pedersen and is 76th in the general classification. Bennett is 99th.

Christophe Laporte [Jumbo-Visma] went down in a crash inside the last kilometre but he still remains top of the GC ahead of Van Aert and his Jumbo-Visma team-mate Primoz Roglic.