Granollers to Les Angles – 195.9 km – Mountains
Photos: A.S.O. Charley Lopez
A mountainous route that crossed from Spain to France midstream, yielded a constantly evolving breakaway. But it was a strategy devised by a strong team with a strong man at the front that won in the end.
Tired of the charade that paraded in front of him, Tadej Pogacar pulled away in the very last climb, 200 meters before the finish a dull witted cat. 3 that he could handle easily, and took any advantage back from his rival Jonas Vingegaard. He made it look so easy, and it almost seemed like he was saying, “Can you see how easy it is for me to snatch the stage win, and snatch back the Yellow Jersey too?”
After yesterday’s ego-sodden giveaway win at the line to his teammate and blushingly young newcomer Isaac del Toro (which many heralded as generous and appropriately ego-stroking for the young Mexican), Pogacar showed us how easy it is to vanquish all comers to the Tour de France.
It almost begs for him to make a mistake in the coming days, because after all, aren’t we just at stage 3 and Pogacar has already demonstrated his absolute dominance? It’s taking the fun out of the game, and giving the viewers a big yawn.
We just can’t wait to see how NBC Sports/ Peacock commentators Phil Liggett and Bob Roll manage to keep us entertained when we can already predict the beginning, middle and end of this story. How they manage to make this still entertaining will certainly be equal to their salaries in the reporting box.
Pogacar’s 22nd stage victory sees him equal the fifth-highest total in Tour history, held by André Darrigade.
Needless to say, there will be many small triumphs along the way, like the performances of Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), and Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM). Baudin kept up the fight after establishing a break from a break from a break (details below) but was caught by the peloton (almost like clockwork as we stated) at the last Cat. 3 climb of three.
On Pogacar’s wheel, Jonas Vingegaard was immediately distanced. He crossed the line in second position, with a gap of 2 seconds, just ahead of Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM).
The gap on the line and the time bonuses means Pogacar and Vingegaard are level on time. The Slovenian leads the standings thanks to a lower tally when adding up the positions in which they finished each stage.
To the jaundiced mind, this Tour, like last year’s perhaps, will yield the smaller, more precious stories like the one about Alex Baudin’s aggressive battle to perhaps win the Yellow today. In the end, he procured the Polka-Dot Jersey, not a small feat.
“This jersey is a reward for my efforts today,” recounted Baudin after the stage. “It wasn’t my main objective; I wanted to win the stage and take the Maillot Jaune. With the legs I had, I really believed I could do it. I felt really good – that’s a good sign for the days ahead. But UAE wanted to win the stage. And when I saw the gap closing on the final stretch along those wide roads, with a headwind, I had my doubts… But the polka-dot jersey is a consolation.”
The Details
Stage 3 started almost immediately with an attack from Molenaar, who started the day as the leader in the KOM. “From now on we are going to try and fight for every breakaway and every sprint stage. The goal for today is featuring in the breakaway and trying to keep this polka-dot jersey within the team,” said Molenaar at the start.
Joining Molenaar were former GC leader in La Vuelta, Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility), Thibault Guernalec (Total Energies), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), and Liam Slock (Lotto Intermarché).
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) tried to join them at the front. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Michal Kwiatkowski (Netcompany Ineos) also followed. They were caught at km 6, but then Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) attacked at the bottom of the Côte de Saint Feliu de Codines (7.6km, 4.5%). Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar) was on his wheel, followed by many more attackers.
Nicolas Breuillard (Total Energies) led the way at km 11. Colombian national champion Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) bridges the fap with a handful of chasers. There was also Valentin Paret-Peintre, and Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla). Strong climbers such as Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos) and Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) followed.
A crash occurred on a turn with Bruno Armirail, Tobias Foss and Josh Tarling. Many of the Ineos team were involved.
Soon Paret-Pentre and Romo opened a gap, and Paret-Peintre took KOM points. Van de Poel attacked at km 24 and was joined by Carapaz, Abrahamsen, and Bennett. At km 34 Abrahamsen set off, and seven riders went with him among them Egan Bernal and Harold Tejada. First at the top the Côte de Saint Feliu de Codines, Paret-Peintre (Soudal – Quick-Step) climbed the day’s first categorized climb at an average speed of 33.10 km/h. After 50 km, the break was swallowed.
A new attack started at km 58, Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Stepà), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), and Matteo Vercher (Total Energies). At km 63, George Bennett (NSN), Luke Plapp, Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) were chasing 18” behind the leaders. More counter-attackers set off from the bunch, 5” behind the chasers.
Finally the breakaway actually made some headway: Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious), Egan Bernal (Netcompany Ineos), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step), Luke Plapp, Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), George Bennett (NSN), Raul Garcia Pierna, Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ), Matteo Vercher (Total Energies) were now together at km 70. Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), Michael Storer (Tudor), Joris Delbove (Total Energies), Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) trailed by 20 seconds.
At km 72, Egan Bernal suffered a mechanical and was dropped. There was a gap of 2 minutes to the peloton. Alex Baudin was leading the virtual Yellow Jersey in the break. Bernal dropped back to the peloton. The gap soon increased to 2 minutes 45 seconds. They were 10 kilometers from the intermediate sprint.
The attackers entered the last 100 kilometers with a lead of 3’05”.
Two of the eighteen riders in the breakaway had already claimed victories in the Tour de France: Denmark’s national champion Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) succeeded in Carcassonne (2018) and Megève (2022); his countryman Mads Pedersen won in Saint-Étienne (2022) and Limoges (2023). They both have claimed stages on all three Grand Tours. Cort has 6 at La Vuelta, and 2 at the Giro. Pedersen has 5 at the Giro, and 4 at La Vuelta. Nicolas Prodhomme, Luke Plapp and Mauro Schmid have one Giro stage each. Nelson Oliveira won a La Vuelta stage.
Pedersen won the intermediate sprint, and his points were up to 37 in the Green Jersey..
Results of the intermediate sprint in Campdevanol (km 98.4)
1. Pedersen, 25 pts
2. Delbove, 20 pts
3. Baudin, 16 pts
4. Storer, 14 pts
5. Vercher, 12 pts
6. Tejada, 10 pts
7. Plapp, 9 pts
8. Cort, 8 pts
9. Oliveira, 7 pts
10. Balderstone, 6 pts
11. Schmid, 5 pts
12. Van Mechelen, 4 pts
13. Braz Afonso, 3 pts
14. Prodhomme, 2 pts
15. Bennett, 1 pt
The first major climb of the day loomed ahead at Col de Toses, and is the first of 13 Cat. 1 ascents in this year’s TDF. Then there were four riders in a crash among them Anders Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility).
Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar) attacked at the foot of the climb up the Col de Toses. Pierna (Movistar) was alone at the front, 5 seconds ahead of Matteo Vercher (Total Energies).The rest of the chasers trailed by 30 seconds. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Alex Aranburu (Cofidis) were dropped. The gap to the bunch was back up to 1’30”. Nils Politt (UAE Emirates XRG) was now setting the pace.
Mads was brought back to the peloton.
Van Mechelen and Vercher pulled up closer to Garcia Pierna. Behind them, Baudin, Prodhomme and Bennett had dropped their rivals.Vercher joined the leaders, and so did Baudin, Bennett and Prodhomme with 2 kilometers left of climbing. Results at Col de Toses (cat. 1, km 127.7). Alex Baudin (EF Education – EasyPost) virtually claimed the polka-dot jersey by crossing in first position the Col de Toses (9.3 km at 6.5 %).
1. Baudin, 10 pts
2. Prodhomme, 8 pts
3. Garcia Pierna, 6 pts
4. Van Mechelen, 4 pts
5. Vercher, 2 pts
6. Bennett, 1 pt
There were two more cat. 3 climbs to come in the day, with 62.3 km remaining. The riders passed through La Molina (km 131.8), a popular destination on the Volta a Catalunya. Several riders in the 2026 Tour de France peloton have won stages here, including Remco Evenepoel (Stage 3 in 2023) and Juan Ayuso (Stage 3 in 2025).
Soon the riders crossed the border from Catalonia to France.
Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM), Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain Victorious), Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar), George Bennett (NSN), and Matteo Vercher (Total Energies) were approaching 11.4 km at 4.1% to reach Col du Calvaire.
Baudin attacked with 34 km to go. Prodhomme reacted and joined him. Soon they were 9 km from the summit, and the other break riders were trailing by 20 seconds, with the peloton back by 1′ 20 “.
Baudin and Prodhomme’s lead on their breakaway rivals increased to 35”. But the peloton moved closer: 1 minute. Baudin was no longer the virtual leader. Meanwhile Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché), who has been suffering from gastroenteritis, had dropped to 32 minutes behind the leaders.
The leaders entered the last 25 km, with a gap of 50 seconds. The chasers were caught by the peloton.
With 11 kilometers to go, Alex Baudin was caught by the peloton, and he will receive the Most Combative Award.
Lidl-Trek, Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Emirates XRG took the front positions with 4 kilometers to go.
Kuss and Del Toro were at the front, with Pogacar and Vingegaard right behind.
Pogacar took off 200 meters from the finish and beat the field, with the final stage wins as follows:
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG)
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +2”
3. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), +2”
4. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), +2”
5. Tobias Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility), +4”
And the Yellow Jersey changes hands:
Tadej Pogacar also takes the Maillot Jaune.
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG)
2. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), s.t.
3. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +23”
4. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG), +24”
5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), +27”
