Tour de France LIVE: Stage 3 result as Dylan Groenewegen wins photo finish after crash
The Tour de France resumes with its final Danish leg, a 182km ride down the mainland coastline finishing in the town of Sonderborg
Dylan Groenewegen won stage three of the Tour de France in a four-way photo finish in Sondeborg, Denmark.
Groenewegen narrowly beat yellow jersey wearer Wout van Aert, Jasper Philipsen and Peter Sagan in a dramatic finish to the 182km stage from Vejle as the Danish Grand Depart came to a dramatic end. Groenewegen rode the wheels and came around first Sagan and then Van Aert to claim his fifth career Tour stage win and first since 2019.
After Fabio Jakobsen claimed an emotional stage victory on Saturday to complete his comeback from the life-threatening injuries he suffered at the Tour of Poland in 2020, Sunday was the turn of the rider he collided with two years ago.
Groenewegen did not face the physical recovery Jakobsen did from that incident, but had spoken of the mental scars after he faced death threats and abuse in its wake - with the Dutchman also handed a nine-month ban by world governing body the UCI.
“It was a long way (back),” Groenewegen said. “I want to say thank you to my team and my family and friends for getting me back to the Tour in good shape. It’s beautiful.
“Not physically but mentally it’s been a hard time of course after all that happened. This is for my wife and my son, it means a lot.”
Groenewegen said he had been held up in a late crash that split the peloton a little over 10km from the line, though he was in the right place when it mattered.
“Yesterday I was a little bit angry with myself but today, though I was a long time boxed in and involved in a crash with nine kilometres to go, my team brought me back into position and I stayed calm to the end,” he added.
Follow the latest updates from stage 3 of the 2022 Tour de France below.
Tour de France stage 3
14km go to: Bora-Hansgrohe are up front, though I’m not totally sure why, given they didn’t bring Sam Bennett to the Tour to challenge on sprint stages like this one.
Tour de France stage 3
Here’s a tweet showing the intricate finish with that sharp left-hander into the finish straight. Hopefully everyone navigates through safely.
Tour de France stage 3
20km to go: The big contenders for this sprint finish – Van Aert, Jakobsen, Philipsen – are all well positioned near the front of the bunch with teammates in close attendance.
Tour de France stage 3
A closer look at the finish in Sonderborg:
Tour de France stage 3
27km to go: We are surging east towards the island of Als, and the town of Sonderborg where this stage finishes.
Tour de France stage 3
33km to go: Through the final feeding zone they go. Jumbo-Visma’s Nathan van Hooydonck tries to collect a second bottle for one of his teammates and ends up slapping it into the road. Not so smooth. Behind him, Ineos’s Dylan van Baarle grabs a couple of fuel bags, presumably one for himself and one for his team leader Geraint Thomas.
Tour de France stage 3
40km to go: The pack are being let by Lotto Soudal right now, Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan’s team, with QuickStep right up there too of course, looking to make it a hat-trick of wins.
Tour de France stage 3
Before we get to the real stuff at the end of this race, an interesting little behind-the-scenes clip:
Tour de France stage 3
50km to go: Magnus Cort is finally caught by the bunch, and the whole race is as one as the key sprinters’ teams begin nudging shoulders in an effort to assume control on the front. Yesterday’s late crash was a reminder that the front is certainly the safest place in the peloton when things get edgey in the final throes.
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