Following Anthony Perez’s abandonment, Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-La Mondiale) now enjoys a nine-point lead in the KOM competition. So he will be going all out to cling on to that jersey for as long as possible in the coming days.

The green jersey competition is looking much tighter right now: the new leader Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) has 79 points, just two ahead of the winner of stage one, Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), with Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) in third on 74 points.

And Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step), of course, remains atop the general classification and in the yellow jersey going into Tuesday’s stage four. Thank you for reading and emailing today, I’ll be back later this week for more Tour action. Bye for now.

To be perfectly honest that will not go down in history as one of the more thrilling Tour de France stages. It was notable for some spirited racing for king of the mountains points early on between Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Anthony Perez (Cofidis Solutions Crédits), followed by a brave solo breakaway ride by Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Énergie).

Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) mopped up 17 green jersey points at the day’s solitary intermediate sprint before the sprint trains took control. Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) was a few metres away from his first ever Tour de France stage win before Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) somehow darted around Sagan, and a few other rivals, tearing to the front with perfect timing to take the win at the end of 198km of racing. Sagan finished fifth, which combined with his 17-point haul at the intermediate sprint, puts him into the green jersey for the first time this year.

Thanks to Fia for emailing in: “I figured I’d put my two cents in regarding the American audience following the Tour. There’s probably a much larger difference in the demographic of people following cycling — I’m a young female of color from California studying in a small university on the East Coast and I most certainly do not know anyone that “follows” the Tour besides a singular friend with whom I watch many sports of varying obscurity.

“I only recall several older white couples discussing Alaphilippe with great enthusiasm in the café I liked to study in last summer, whereas I do have many friends who follow NBA/NFL/NHL despite my not-so sports-friendly circles. I myself am an avid fan of figure skating and the Bundesliga, though since I discovered a hidden enthusiasm for various sports a couple years ago I’ve enjoyed following anything from F1 to cycling.”

Here’s the GC top 10 as they stand after stage three:

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 13hr 59’17”
2 Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) +4”
3 Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) +7”
4 Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) (all same time)
5 Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates)
6 Egan Bernal (Team Ineos)
7 Tom Dumoulin (Team Jumbo-Visma)
8 Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) +17
9 Guillaume Martin (Cofidis)
10 Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)

Stage three top 10 result:

1 Caleb Ewan Lotto Soudal 5 hrs 17’42”
2 Sam Bennett Deceuninck-Quickstep
3 Giacomo Nizzolo NTT Pro Cycling
4 Hugo Hofstetter Israel Start-Up Nation
5 Peter Sagan Bora-Hansgrohe
6 Edward Theuns Trek-Segafredo
7 Cees Bol Team Sunweb
8 Matteo Trentin CCC Team
9 Bryan Coquard B&B Hotels-Vital Concept
10 Niccolò Bonifazio Total Direct Energie

Lotto Soudal’s Thomas De Gendt on Eurosport: “We had a plan to sprint, it wasn’t really my job to get Caleb in position, but the guys did perfect work ... you cannot do anything better if he wins. I was sitting in the back, I was out of the stress, I didn’t see anything but I just heard [on the radio] that he won. The sports director wasn’t sure if Caleb won, he was asking us, and we said yes. We can have a celebration tonight.”

Today’s stage winner Caleb Ewan speaks to a Eurosport reporter: “The last few days haven’t been great for us, we crashed on the first day and lost a couple of guys ... but everyone stayed motivated, we all knew if it all went right, I could win the sprint today. Everyone today gave it 110 per cent and it worked. In the last kilometre I was a bit too far forward, so I dropped back a bit, which gave me a chance to rest the legs a bit. It was a bit of a risk - but it worked perfectly in the end.

“The first ones [TdF stage wins last year] were really special, but this is the greatest race in the world, it’s great to show that last year was no fluke. We knew today could be quite hard, but luckily a small break went, and it was quite controlled.

“With the calibre of sprinter here it’s always going to be hard, but we have a few more opportunities, and I think we’ll take them when they come.”

That late acceleration by Caleb Ewan was devastating. He was in sixth place with about 50 metres still to race, and had to come from way back to take the win.

Ewan won three stages last year and looks to be the fastest man at this year’s race. Alaphilippe is still in yellow.

2km to go: The peloton negotiates a roundabout. Lotto Soudal appear at the front, riding for Caleb Ewan. No one team is controlling this, that is for sure.

3.5km to go: Luke Rowe (Team Ineos) has upped the pace at the front, riding for Egan Bernal. The bunch duly stretches out, and it looks a little less crowded at the front of the race.

Now, is yellow jersey-wearer Julian Alaphilippe helping to lead out his teammate Bennett? It looks like he is.

5km to go: A crash in the peloton. Cosnefroy went down, but he looks OK. Wout Van Aert also had a problem and it looks like he needed a bike change and Rémi Cavagna also went down, which is potentially bad news for Bennett ...

7km to go: In a Tour de France with relatively few chances for the sprinters, this is a hugely important day for the likes of Sam Bennett and Caleb Ewan. You would expect Peter Sagan to take the green jersey at the end of the race, such is his experience and pedigree in that competition and in the Tour. But for the likes of Bennett and Ewan, they have to deliver sprint wins, it is as simple as that.

10km to go: The peloton is fanned out across the road and riding hard.

Here’s the result of the intermediate sprint at Digne-les-Bains:

1. Jérôme Cousin, 20 points
2. Peter Sagan, 17
3. Niccolo Bonifazio, 15
4. Giacomo Nizzolo, 13
5. Alexander Kristoff, 11
6. Daniel Oss, 10
7. Sam Bennett, 9
8. Matteo Trentin, 8
9. Bryan Coquard, 7
10. Max Walscheid, 6
11. Michael Morkov, 5
12. Geoffrey Soupe, 4
13. Damiano Caruso, 3
14. Rémi Cavagna, 2
15. Sonny Colbrelli, 1

15km to go: Cofidis, Bahrain-McLaren and NTT are all visible at the front. Alaphilippe is safely in the peloton. Deceuninck-Quick-Step riders are still up at the front too and Bennett is certainly going to get a lead-out here.

If there had been a camera alongside Cousin just then, he probably would have waved, and blown a kiss to the camera.

Poor old Cousin didn’t even have anyone to shake hands with. But his team will be grateful for his efforts today, there is no question about that.

16km to go: Cousin is caught, swallowed up by the peloton, and we are all back together for the sprint finish in Sisteron.

17km to go: The gap is down to 18”.

18km to go: “Jérôme Cousin has logically been awarded the price of most aggressive rider today,” announces the official Tour de France site. Logically indeed.

On commentary, Brian Smith refers to the ‘business end’ of the stage, which is what we are now in.

19km to go: The gap is 21”. Cousin has had a relatively good day, hasn’t he?

22km to go: Cousin is riding remarkably strongly to stay out front, but having said that, the peloton has clearly eased off a touch so they don’t catch him too quickly and consign themselves to a lengthy, draining end to the stage.

24km to go: Cosnefroy (Ag2r-La Mondiale) will keep the KOM jersey tonight but only by default, after Anthony Perez (Cofidis Solutions Crédits) crashed out with a broken clavicle.

Cousin powers on at the front. He still has 30 seconds.

26km to go: The gap is down to 33”. The sun is out. Deceuninck-Quick-Step are working on the front. All present and correct.

Moody and magnificent scenery:

30km to go: Jonathan Davis emails: “(groan) ... actually he’s a first Cousin, once removed.”

He is still first at the moment, and he is soon to have that status removed, so yes! Quite right, Jonatha.

35km to go: Cousin’s advantage is down to 47”. He is making a good go of this now, riding hard and trying to stay away for as long as possible. I suppose you could say that from the peloton’s point of view today, he’s been a distant Cousin.

37km to go: Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) wins the race from the bunch for second place at the intermediate sprint. Niccolò Bonifazio (Total Direct Énergie) was behind Sagan, Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT Pro Cycling) was next, then came Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates).

38km to go: Cousin goes through the intermediate sprint. The pace is hot behind, and his advantage is down to 1’00”.

42km to go: Here is a handy sped-up video of the final kilometre of today’s stage:

It should be pretty hectic. Who is your money on?

44km to go: Doug English emails from the US: “I know a lot of people who follow the TdF, and we DVR it every day on NBC Sports. Mainstream sports journalism in the United States though is a joke outside coverage of American football, basketball, baseball, and ice hockey if there’s a local team that doesn’t suck. On the positive side, no one here seems to consider snooker a sport, so there’s no coverage of that.”

Cousin, today’s lone escapee, has 1’32” on the peloton.

45km to go: Cousin rides out of his saddle as he approaches the top of the Col de l’Orme. There is an intermediate sprint at Digne-les-Bains after 160.5km - with 17 points in the green jersey competition for the second rider over the line, after Cousin.

46km to go: On Eurosport Brian Smith reckons, given the easy nature of the day so far, that the final 20km is going to be flat-out, with loads of fresh-legged teams and sprinters duking it out for the w. I suppose that would be a nice little pay-off for those of us who have watched this stage from the start.

47km to go: Right, on the road, we are on the final climb of the day, the Col de l’Orme, which is a category four. There will be one point up for grabs and it will go to Cousin.

49km to go: Delicious food in a theme park, you say? I suppose the French could pull that off. I don’t think the catering at Alton Towers has garnered any Michelin stars.

Incidentally, there is a brilliant restaurant in the departures area of Naples airport, beyond security and passport control, speaking of finding good food in unlikely places.

50km to go: Tom Paternoster-Howe emails: “A great place to eat wild boar is Parc Asterix. The various restaurants there all seem to serve wild boar in different ways, and it’s always delicious. And then you’re in Parc Asterix, which is just ace! If you’re shooting your own, and the liver is fluke-free, then it makes a fabulously strong paté.

“As for whether the break will survive, I think it was Sean Kelly who used to (maybe still does) reckon that a breakaway needs about 1 min for every 10km remaining to have a chance of staying out (more if it’s a lone rider, less if it’s a large group), so Cousin has about half what he needs, and he’ll get caught with about 15km to go, after the peloton have let him hang out there as long as possible to discourage further breakaways.”

52km to go - Ken Ross emails in: “Strongly disagree about Americans not following the tour. This North American household (one American, one Canadian) and several of our friends in Massachusetts are avidly watching the tour and following it every single day. Keep up the great work. Allez Alaphilippe!”

On Eurosport, Rob Hatch says that Perez crashed into his own team car. A sad end to what was going to be a good race for the Frenchman.

55km to go: Alistair Connor chips in on the old wild boar:

“Though not an Obelix-level wild boar fan, I do appreciate a bit of sanglier. Not only because they are excellent eating, but because they are far too numerous on most of the territory of France, and ravage regenerating forests. The problem is the lack of predators… other than farmers with shotguns. Rural depopulation is reducing the numbers of these, so my answer is to let the wolves come back… Though that brings problems of its own of course.”

The gap is 1’38” and Deceuninck-Quick-Step have quickened their step up at the front.

58km to go: On Eurosport Wiggins makes a good point - that Team Ineos are barely visible in the peloton, unlike so many of the recent editions of this race, when they would be setting the pace or at least right with Deceuninck-Quick-Step up at the front.

Rodney Roberts emails from New York:

“I don’t think many Americans follow the Tour to its conclusions in Paris next month - a small mention in today’s NYT Sport pages, SCOREBOARD item on last page! Except perhaps bicycle racers here!”

It’s not like the old days, is it Rodney? The Tour de Lance, and all that.

60km to go: Perez has a broken collarbone, so must indeed have crashed, albeit out of the view of the TV cameras. He had fought bravely in the KOM duel today, and had taken the lead in that classification, but has already been scrubbed from the live KOM standings on the official Tour de France website. Cruel.

Meanwhile, Sam Bennett has punctured, and looks incredibly relaxed at roadside as he chats to a team staff member while waiting for a wheel change.

Asked on Eurosport if yesterday’s stage win and yellow jersey for his teammate Alaphilippe takes the pressure off, Sam Bennett says: “I think for the team it takes the pressure off, but I still have pressure on myself.”

And asked if Deceuninck-Quick-Step having the yellow jersey changes team tactics: “It means we sit back a little bit more, let the other teams control it more for the sprints. We can’t work for the yellow and go for the sprints so the other teams will have to pull their weight a bit more.

“It [the finish today] looks pretty much straight, I’ll just try and get a clear run to the finish line.”

68km to go: Well, that excitement was over almost before it began. Deceuninck-Quick-Step have slammed the door shut and caught up with Cosnefroy and Peters, who are duly swallowed up by the peloton. The gap is 2’15” now.

70km: Oooof! Suddenly some gaps appear in the peloton, following that upping of the pace by AG2R. After a very relaxed few hours, we have suddenly got a bit of action. Cosnefroy, I fancy, IS trying to catch up with Cousin before the day’s last climb. The gap between peloton and Cousin is 2’37”.

74km to go: I was probably quite wrong to say that Cosnefroy is trying to bridge to Cousin at the head of the race, but let’s see. He was after that KOM point. With only a category-four climb still to come, there is only one more point up for grabs today, and that will go to Cousin unless AG2R really get busy and catch up with him ... The rider with Cosnefroy is Nans Peters, by the way.

75km to go: The good news for the riders is that the sun has come out. Cousin crested the Col des Lègues a few minutes back. Meanwhile, Cosnefroy and another AG2R rider are trying to bridge across to Cousin up front. We’ve got a bike race on our hands! Sort of! Cosnefroy, in polka-dots, is more than three minutes down on Cousin, but of course he took the solitary point on offer at the top of that climb just now, so he is a point behind Cousin in the KOM standings.

79km to go: The gap is 3’41”. What are the odds of this stage not ending in a bunch sprint? I suppose, as mentioned earlier, if it comes back together earlier than expected, there might be a bit of action. But that’s why Deceuninck-Quick-Step are being so careful not to catch the break too early. They want a nice ‘easy’ day, if such a thing is possible when you are riding a bike for 198km.

81km to go: Dan Johnson emails in: “Wild boar is indeed tasty, but it’s not necessarily advisable to go and shoot one and eat it. In Provence, near where the in-laws live, they shoot them for sport. You need a vet there to test each one for liver flukes before it can be sold for meat. Not quite the idyllic story of heading out into the hills to bag one and stick it on the barbie, but there you go.”

What’s a liver fluke? Well, it’s a is a collective name of a polyphyletic group of parasitic trematodes under the phylum Platyhelminthes. What’s a trematode? It’s a parasite AKA a worm.

I saw a big wild boar at the top of the Gorge de la Nesque (near Mont Ventoux) a couple of years back, and it was entirely unfazed by the bevvy of tourists taking photos of it. I also used to see them with regularity on bike rides in Poland when I lived over there. There’s a lot of them about.

83km to go: The TV director decides to mix it up a bit, and settles on a brief shot of Movistar Team, and the irrepressible Alejandro Valverde. Cousin’s lead up front has gone out again, to 3’42”. He is about two kilometres from the top of this climb, which is winding beautifully up via a number of hairpins.

Thanks to Hugo Glass for the email:

“I can confirm that Wild Boar is absolutely delicious, particularly Wild Boar sausages. I used to work in a pub and we made Wild Boar scotch eggs which were ridiculously nice! Great to see Julian pick up the win yesterday and dedicate it to his late father, does anyone look better on a bike than him?”

Kevin Rose chips in: “Wild boar? What’s not to like? Licensed hunting season’s just started around here. Otherwise, without any predator, they run amok in fields and gardens. Get ‘em into your wood-fired ovens and leave ‘em long. Other recipes available. Kevin, central Portugal.”

Other dishes are indeed available, from vegetarian to vegan and back. You’re right about Alaphilippe’s panache on the bike, Hugo. He just oozes class.

The sprinter Elia Viviani (Cofidis Solutions Crédits) speaking before the stage: “Today’s a good stage for sprinters and there aren’t many on this Tour ... I am feeling pretty good, the team is motivated to get a victory, so we will go and see what we can do today.”

85km to go: The breakaway - also known as Jerome Cousin (Total Direct Énergie) - is on the third categorised climb of the day. The Col des Lèques is 6.9km long, with an average gradient of 5.4%. There will be a KOM point to be mopped up by whoever crests the climb second, behind Cousin.

88km to go: This kind of rolling stage looked a good one for Thomas De Gendt of Lotto Soudal to maybe have a crack at - although with the long downhill profile in the second half of the route, it possibly wouldn’t be ideal for the professional breakaway specialists. De Gendt was visible right at the front when the peloton rolled out, but he was probably told by his team to stay in the peloton and save his energy to help Caleb Ewan try and win the stage later on ...

90km to go: The gap between Cousin, our brave lone escapee, and the peloton has been holding at around 2’30” for a while now. “You keep on tapping away, and in the meantime you’re getting publicity for your team,” Kelly says of Cousin. The rain has disappeared, but if this was Test cricket, the covers would definitely still be on, and the light would doubtless be an issue too. A few minutes back, the Eurosport team were discussing wild boar and whether or not it’s nice to eat. Any big wild boar fans in today?

Sean Kelly on Eurosport was just talking about how the Covid-19 lockdown will affect this Tour de France. Some riders, Kelly says, are much better than others when it comes to keeping their form up on indoor bikes - Carlton Kirby had been talking about how strictly the lockdown was enforced in France and Italy and said that Elia Viviani was not even allowed to put his turbo trainer out on a balcony at his apartment. “Some riders hate that. These riders won’t know how their bodies might react after two or three weeks of racing,” says Kelly.

Inside 100km to race now and Cousin, up front on his own, has a lead of 2’38”. Tim Declercq is working on the front of the bunch for Deceuninck-Quick-Step.

101km to go: Another heavy rain shower falls on the riders. Weather in Sisteron, where we are heading today, is ‘mostly sunny’ and 25C.

Cousin is coming down a very wet descent, and quite understandably appears to be taking it at a pretty easy pace.

108km to go: Cousin’s lead, on his own up at the front of the race, is down to 3’25” now.

111km: Further to Tom’s earlier email about the prospects of a decent lead-out for Sam Bennett in Sisteron later, it will certainly be interesting to see how Deceuninck-Quick-Step play it. They will obviously want to be up front to look after Alaphilippe, although perhaps other teams will take control inside the 3km mark.

I reckon though, given the fact it is shaping up be a relatively easy day for the Belgian team, that they will give it everything to get a second consecutive stage win to go with the yellow jersey.

113km to go: Stunning scenery shots from the TV helicopter - check. French rider up front, getting on the telly - check. Frenchman in yellow - check. Zero interest from the peloton in anything resembling a race - check. This is, in some senses, the perfect day on the Tour de France.

117km to go: Some very ominous dark clouds are gathered over this corner of south-west France. It looks like we are guaranteed to get some more rain later in the stage, but there is blue sky in the distance too.

Cousin pushes on alone up front, with a lead of 4’14” now. Deceuninck-Quick-Step work at the head of the peloton with Alaphilippe prominent, wearing yellow. As it stands he will be very confident of another day in yellow tomorrow.

After two categorised climbs, the top of the KOM standings looks like this:

Anthony Perez (Cofidis Solutions Crédits) 22 pts
Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-La Mondiale) 20 pts
Michael Gogl (NTT Pro Cycling) 12 pts

Up front, Cousin has four minutes. The marketing teams at Total and Direct Énergie are going to be happy, at least.

Here’s a clip of the sprint for the first climb of the day, at the top of the Col du Pilon:

124km to go: An email from Tom Paternoster-Howe: “Come the finish Deceuninck–Quick-Step are going to be knackered after working on the front for most of the day, so Bennett isn’t going to get much, if any, help from the team. I don’t think he’s good enough to sneak a victory without a lead-out when the other sprinters will all have one, so I don’t think he’ll get it. Sagan isn’t fast enough to win a bunch sprint any more (but he’ll still be in Green whenever the race finishes), so someone like Ewen, Coquard or Viviani are more in the reckoning, as I see it.”

The gap is out to three minutes.

126km to go: This is quite interesting in one sense - with Cousin now up front alone, does that increase the chance of the race coming back together a long way before the finish? We shall see - for the moment, the peloton look determined to have the closest thing you can have to a day off when you’re riding the Tour de France. Cousin’s advantage over the peloton is 2’33”. I was going to call them the ‘chasing’ peloton but that would be wrong.

127km to go: There seems to be a bit of a row going on in the breakaway, with Cosnefroy appearing to suggest to Perez in no uncertain terms that he should be doing more work.

“If the peloton go any slower, they will have to be doing standstills,” says Kelly on Eurosport. “We are way behind the slowest time schedule.”

Following that little tête-à-tête between Cosnefroy and Perez, they have both dropped back, and Cousin is now out front on his own. He doesn’t look too thrilled about it, it must be said.

134km to go: At the top of the second categorised climb, the Col de la Fay, Perez beats Cosnefroy in a two-man sprint yet again. Perez just looks stronger today, and seems well set to take the polka-dot jersey off his compatriot’s hands, now with a two-point lead. The mood back in the peloton is very relaxed, content to let the breakaway riders fight it out at the front.

135km to go: Approaching the top of the second climb, and the gap is 2’12”. The rain has eased off and the riders in the peloton, correspondingly, look a bit happier with life.

136km to go: Speaking on Eurosport, Bradley Wiggins says: ‘This is a bit of a boring stage for the viewers. But it’s all about Perez and Cosnefroy at the front and the king of the mountains points. Neither of these riders will try and hold the jersey to Paris, it’s about success for French teams in the first week of the race.”

Sean Kelly adds: “Perez and Cosnefroy were looking at each other a bit, so the peloton has knocked off [the pace], otherwise they are going to swallow the breakaway up far too early in the stage. It’s very easy racing now.”

143km to go: Perez and Cosnefroy sprint for the line atop the Col du Pilon, while Cousin decides not to contest it with them, and Perez takes maximum points for Cofidis. Cosnefroy looked like he might just overhaul Perez at the line, but he held on. Perez puffs his cheeks out and grimaces at the camera alongside him. Perez edges ahead in the KOM classification with 20 points overall, a point ahead of Cosnefroy now, who has 19.

The break is now on the Col de la Faye, which is shorter than the previous climb, at 5.3km in length. The gap between break and peloton is just under two minutes.

144km to go: Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Énergie) just stuck in a cheeky attack off the front in the breakway, forcing his companions to respond. They are together again, one kilometre from the summit, and the rain seems to have eased off a touch towards the top of the climb.

146km to go: As Alan Partridge once said, it really is raining quite heavily now. The riders look about as happy as you’d expect, that is, not very happy at all. Alaphilippe is visible close to the front of the peloton in a yellow rain jacket to go with his yellow jersey. Today’s three leaders are just over three kilometres from the top of the climb, the Col du Pilon, and we should see a good race for the KOM points between Cosnefroy and Perez in a few minutes.

150km to go: The rain is fairly hammering down on the riders now as they ride up the Col du Pilon. Interestingly, the gap between break away and peloton has also fallen, down to 1’40” now. If this all comes back together halfway through the stage, we could see some fireworks.

Deceuninck–Quick-Step are massed at the front of the peloton, and they have eaten into the breakaway’s advantage slightly, bringing it back to two minutes. Clearly, they are not prepared to give this breakaway much rope, which tells you all you need to know about their intentions for the finish in Sisteron later.

The breakaway has in fact just hit the foot of the first climb, the Col du Pilon. Back in the peloton, rain jackets are going on as a shower appears overhead.

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck–Quick-Step) was the most heavily-backed favourite on the betting markets this morning. Who do you think will win? Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) are other obvious candidates. Ewan in particular will be one to watch - he can be very effective on uphill sprint finishes.

Do send me an email or a tweet with your thoughts on that, or anything else Tour de France-related ...

Seb Piquet, the world-famous voice of Tour Radio, seems to think rain might not be too far away:

And here is a computer-generated fly-through of today’s route:

Here’s the GC top 10 as they stand after Stage 2:

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 8hr 41’35”
2 Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) +4”
3 Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb) +7”
4 Sergio Higuita (EF Pro Cycling) +17
5 Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) (all same time)
6 Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott)
7 Davide Formolo (UAE Team Emirates)
8 Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Team Ineos)
9 Richard Carapaz (Team Ineos)
10 Tom Dumoulin (Team Jumbo-Visma)

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was showing off again before today’s stage. Which is always good to watch:

There is a three-man breakaway who currently have an advantage of about 2’15” on the peloton. Benoît Cosnefroy (Ag2r-La Mondiale) in the polka-dots, Jérôme Cousin (Total Direct Énergie) and Anthony Perez (Cofidis Solutions Crédits) are the men in it. Oliver Naesen (Ag2r-La Mondiale) was there originally but has now dropped back to the bunch, leaving a 100 per cent French trio at the tête de la course.