Pogacar Powers to Stage 3 Victory as Tour de France Reaches the Mountains
Stage 2 was just the beginning for UAE.
Stage 3 covered an incredible 195.9 kilometers from Granollers to the mountains of Les Angles. The breakaway did not hesitate to wait once again. Louis Vervaeke of Soudal Quick-Step, the always aggressive Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility, Nelson Oliveira of the revamped Movistar, and Matteo Vercher of TotalEnergies found a gap before 60 kilometers.
In a tough scene of events, the beloved former Tour champion, Egan Bernal, barely missed out on the major breakaway of the stage so far. Close to 18 men eventually made up this escape train.
As the 100-kilometer marker approached, the breakaway had put more than three minutes on the peloton. Alex Baudin of EF Education-EasyPost was the clear leader of this pack. He was near a minute behind the overall lead.
Baudin and a few other riders escaped from the current breakaway at the 340-kilometer marker as they said goodbye to Catalonia. While Mads Pedersen took the sprint points in the main peloton, Baudin raced uphill to secure the King of the Mountains jersey.
As they approached Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the final climb, the peloton was only 20 seconds back. A familiar face, Isaac del Toro, yesterday’s winner, took the reins to pull his team closer as they passed Baudin.
Pogacar shakes and bakes with his teammate Del Toro as he launches past the field. As he beats Vingegaard to the line by two seconds, the two leaders enter Stage 4 with identical times.
