No breakaways and no action is the best way to sum up the first 110km of stage 3…Despite the lack of action the crowds were out in force to see the peloton with many villages decorated for the occasion.After an action packed first two stages of Le Tour the riders weren’t keen on making an exciting race with the weather and parcours certainly playing a big part.Today’s stage – 178km almost completely flat and a block headwind for the last 50km. Not an encouraging day for a breakaway!The riders did set a record though – the least active stage in history! The race jury who nominates the combativity award every day took the extraordinary decision of not awarding a winner today.So after a long day of absolutely nothing happening some action finally occurred at the intermediate sprint point with 65km remaining but unfortunately it wasn’t the sort of action that the Alpecin team were looking for. Green jersey clad Jasper Philipsen clashed with Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and the first yellow jersey winner of this year’s Tour fell heavily and was out of the race.With Philipsen gone the Alpecin-Deceuninck team had to re-adjust and were now putting all their eggs into the Kaden Groves basket for the bunch sprint which would surely come after a day of almost ‘non’ racing.The only true breakaway of the day was by the new Belgian champion, Tim Wellens (UAE) who went to the front of the peloton, explained to the other riders that he was…
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