Mats Pedersen takes Stage 3 victory at Paris-Nice as leader Christophe Laporte crashes on home straight

A classics-style Stage 3 ended in a slimline bunch finish, with the 2019 World Champion, Mads Pedersen, able to outsprint Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma), to take Trek-Segafredo’s first WorldTour win in nine months. The second longest stage of the week took the race from the still somewhat northern Vierizon, in the Loire Valley, to the commune of Dun-le-Palestel in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. While far from the most mountainous, it had enough about it to tempt the breakaway king, Thomas De Gent, into trying his luck.

After a short-lived six-man attack came to nothing the Lotto Soudal rider, along with Owain Doull (EF Education-Easy Post) and Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels-KTM), were able to complete a conscious uncoupling from the peloton. Ad/> The trio’s lead topped out at just under five minutes, before the peloton decided to begin the very gradual process of bringing it back. Gougeard, second in the king of the mountains competition at the start of the day, had his eyes on a certain polka prize.

De Gendt might have been expected to defer to Gougeard, while prioritising the stage win for himself. Over the first climb, however, the Côte d'Éguzon, it was the Belgian who took maximum three points, the Frenchman only able to add one to his tally. It was the same order over the 2.1km Côte de Crozant, with De Gendt playing the perfect team-mate to Matt Holmes, defending the jersey on behalf of the British incumbent back in the bunch.