OFFICIAL Stage 3 Results: Arnaud de Lie ABANDONS!
Laurens De Jong
Hello, Tour de France Gamers!
STAGE Grade: B
I rate today’s stage a B. It was essentially the same stage as Sunday, perhaps the route wasn’t as pretty but it did go to a ski station.
Route: 3/5 GC: 1/5 Tactics: 3/5 Sprint: 3/5 Surprises: 3/5
Stage 3 of the 1963 Tour de France went 223 kilometers from Jambes to Roubaix. Shay Elliot won that day, the now-forgotten Irishman who was nonetheless every bit the equal of the likes of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche. Well, I say equal, he won just a handful of races, including two stages in the Vuelta a España and one in the Giro d’Italia.
Elliot won in part because the Jacques Anquetil, who would win the 1963 Tour, Raymond Poulidor, and Federico Bahamontes were just freewheeling to the finish. I liked that. A week of nonchalant riding, and only then the cracks show up at the front.
What do we have now? A stage won by Tadej Pogačar and now we all have to analyze what that means. That he won was predictable, even though I picked Remco Evenepoel. So what of Evenepoel? He couldn’t follow Pogačar, looked weak on the final climb. What to read into that? Too little? Too much? In Belgium they’ve already given up on him. Losing ten pounds over the winter will cost him the 2026 Tour de France.
It’s ridiculous. We’ve learned nothing. UAE Team Emirates – XRG can pull a peloton so hard that everyone cracks, which we already knew. Pogačar can win a race any way he wants to, any time he wants to; which we already knew. Jonas Vingegaard is perfectly happy not defending his yellow jersey in week 1, which we already knew. We’ve learned nothing.
Pogačar can be beaten. It’s happened, once or twice. He races as if he can’t be beaten. In 2025, Simon Yates won the Giro d’Italia by never ever putting his face in the wind until stage 20. He had accumulated zero bonus seconds. Today, Pogačar won the stage and leads the general classification because of the bonus seconds accumulated on the finish line. Even Pogačar can spend his watts only once. I don’t know if anyone will beat him in the 2026 Tour de France, but I wouldn’t race as if it can’t happen. A mistake, Pogačar winning stage 3.
Pogačar doesn’t care. I don’t think he calculated this at all. He races without a care in the world, in the end he’s going to win anyway. When Lance Armstrong raced like that, I found it cynical. But Pogačar is no cynic, he’s genuinely enjoying himself. We live in mythical times with the likes of Pogačar in the peloton.
I picked the 1963 Tour because that is the year the ski area opened in Les Angles, where we finished today. Ten years later a poma lift was built from the village to the exact finish line of today’s stage. It was steep and included two turns, a dreadful way up the mountain. It was removed in 1982. On its site, Poma built a regular chairlift in 2006. This is the chairlift that everyone had to take today. Officials, journalists, mechanics, caterers, they all had to park in the village and take the chairlift to the finish area. In winter it’s a six minute ride but they probably slowed it down today for the downhill loading.
Arnaud de Lie abandoned. A year or two ago, we all thought he’d win a dozen stages in his career. That could still happen, he’s only 24, but something is going very wrong for him in 2026. He abandoned the Giro d’Italia after a crash. He abandoned the Tour de France. Not just physically wrong, he’s struggling with the psychology of racing. Cycling is a mental sport. De Lie was struggling in today’s stage and quite early was racing against the time limit. Then he got off his bike and left the Tour. He had been riding solo for 75 kilometers with both time limit and sag wagon ruthlessly on his tail.
Sad for Arvid de Kleijn, who had set out to ride to the finish with de Lie. But de Kleijn did the math and abandoned de Lie, and made it inside the time limit with seven minutes to spare.
Team Valerie is responsible for giving us our focus rider today: Alex Baudin.
In stage 1 of this year’s Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes (that’s the Dauphiné Libéré for us old-timers), Baudin was in a breakaway with among others: George Bennet; Mattéo Vercher; and Raúl García Pierna. The breakaway didn’t last, but Baudin fought and fought and fought, and ended up winning the difficult climbing stage by 32 seconds.
Today, Baudin was in a breakaway with among others: George Bennet; Mattéo Vercher; and Raúl García Pierna. The breakaway didn’t last, but Baudin fought and fought and fought, and ended up winning the combativity award. I don’t know if it was worth it. He started the day in a creditable 13th place in the general classification; because of his hero effort to the end, he lost four minutes today and dropped twelve spots.
But here we are, talking about him. That stage earlier this year was his first big win, after a stage and the overall standings in the 2024 Tour du Limousin-Périgord.
Watch the final kilometer HERE.
Watch the FloBikes highlights HERE.
Watch NBC Sports’ Extended highlights HERE.
Read the TNT Sports report HERE.
Arnaud de Lie’s abandon hurts Team Amalia and Team Charles. Zero points from him for those teams, while everyone else still have all their riders.
There was some confusion in the standings this week. I apologize. Some of you share a name with an adult team. Cameron, Grace, Wesley. I thought I was clever by adding an * to your team name, as I always do. But that fooled my spreadsheet. It was giving the junior teams the points of their adult counterparts. If you compare the junior standings with the “including adult” standings, you’ll see that.
Obviously I fixed the spreadsheet, but that does mean that those teams are in completely different spots in the standings today.
Team Ansel and Team Tadej repeated their stage 2 dominance: this time Team Ansel won, most points from the stage, most points overall, most riders in the Top-25 (twelve). Team Tadej had most points from classifications and they remain second and first, respectively. Team Hugo kept the two in sight, third today and third overall.
Team Josh lost a spot, fourth today and fourth overall. Team Caleb and Team Matthew shared some brotherly love in fifth place; they’re sixth and seventh now — a single point separating them. Team Charles were seventh, good for sixth overall. Team Grace took eighth, that’s also where they are in the standings.
Team Oliver managed ninth today, still eleventh overall; Team Amalia tenth, still ninth. Team Cameron eleventh, they are tenth in the standings and Team Wesley were twelfth today and twelfth overall.
Stage 4 is an old-school transition stage. It’s hot, it’s dry, it’s week one of the Tour de France and the breakaway is looking for its big chance. With a category 4 climb, a category 3 climb, and two category 2 climbs, it absolutely is a breakaway stage. The computer models predict it will be a Mathieu van der Poel or Mads Pedersen kind of day, and I agree. But our Sporza friends insist this will be Quinn Simmons’ day. That makes no sense to me — why would Simmons beat his teammate Pedersen? But the Belgians believe in the American national champion; his attacking style and current form might get him what he never got lost year: a stage win in the Tour de France.
Standings after stage 3:
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Tadej* |
873 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Ansel* |
849 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Hugo* |
807 |
4 |
1 |
|
4 |
Team Josh* |
791 |
3 |
-1 |
|
5 |
Team Caleb* |
702 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Charles* |
664 |
6 |
0 |
|
7 |
Team Matthew* |
663 |
7 |
0 |
|
8 |
Team Grace* |
644 |
8 |
0 |
|
9 |
Team Amalia* |
621 |
9 |
0 |
|
10 |
Team Cameron* |
597 |
10 |
0 |
|
11 |
Team Oliver* |
583 |
11 |
0 |
|
12 |
Team Wesley* |
458 |
12 |
0 |
Standings after stage 3 (including adults):
|
Rank |
Name |
Points |
WAS |
MOVES |
|
1 |
Team Amelia |
898 |
1 |
0 |
|
2 |
Team Kent |
886 |
2 |
0 |
|
3 |
Team Jonwaine |
878 |
4 |
1 |
|
4 |
Team Tadej* |
873 |
3 |
-1 |
|
5 |
Team Ansel* |
849 |
5 |
0 |
|
6 |
Team Kari |
820 |
7 |
1 |
|
7 |
Team Hugo* |
807 |
10 |
3 |
|
8 |
Team Rob |
795 |
8 |
0 |
|
9 |
Team Josh* |
791 |
6 |
-3 |
|
10 |
Team Melanie |
786 |
9 |
-1 |
|
11 |
Team Laurens |
779 |
12 |
1 |
|
12 |
Team Jon |
775 |
11 |
-1 |
|
13 |
Team Eric |
770 |
15 |
2 |
|
14 |
Team Craig |
763 |
16 |
2 |
|
15 |
Team Jonathan |
762 |
14 |
-1 |
|
16 |
Team Julie |
755 |
12 |
-4 |
|
17 |
Team Kurt |
719 |
18 |
1 |
|
18 |
Team Caleb* |
702 |
17 |
-1 |
|
19 |
Team Ed |
687 |
19 |
0 |
|
20 |
Team Corsa |
680 |
20 |
0 |
|
21 |
Team Charlotte |
679 |
21 |
0 |
|
22 |
Team Charles* |
664 |
21 |
-1 |
|
23 |
Team Matthew* |
663 |
23 |
0 |
|
24 |
Team Grace |
644 |
24 |
0 |
|
25 |
Team Furner |
635 |
28 |
3 |
|
26 |
Team Amalia* |
621 |
25 |
-1 |
|
Team Suzanne |
621 |
26 |
0 |
|
|
28 |
Team Ellie |
620 |
28 |
0 |
|
29 |
Team Erin |
615 |
30 |
1 |
|
30 |
Team Adam |
607 |
27 |
-3 |
|
31 |
Team Cameron |
597 |
31 |
0 |
|
32 |
Team Kate |
591 |
33 |
1 |
|
33 |
Team Ambrose |
589 |
32 |
-1 |
|
34 |
Team Oliver* |
583 |
34 |
0 |
|
35 |
Team Allison |
559 |
35 |
0 |
|
36 |
Team Wesley* |
505 |
36 |
0 |
|
37 |
Team Lichterman |
471 |
38 |
1 |
|
38 |
Team Wesley |
458 |
37 |
-1 |
|
39 |
Team Izzy |
443 |
40 |
1 |
|
40 |
Team Senna# |
423 |
39 |
-1 |
|
41 |
Team Grace* |
360 |
41 |
0 |
|
42 |
Team Valerie |
282 |
43 |
1 |
|
43 |
Team Cameron* |
273 |
42 |
-1 |
|
44 |
Team Sam |
225 |
44 |
0 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 3:
|
Name |
STAGE RESULTS |
YELLOW JERSEY |
GREEN JERSEY |
POLKA DOT JERSEY |
WHITE JERSEY |
POINTS/CLASS |
TOTAL |
PREVIOUS |
CUM. TOTAL |
|
Team Amalia* |
144 |
40 |
13 |
1 |
5 |
59 |
203 |
418 |
621 |
|
Team Ansel* |
216 |
51 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
78 |
294 |
555 |
849 |
|
Team Caleb* |
160 |
43 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
66 |
226 |
476 |
702 |
|
Team Cameron* |
143 |
33 |
11 |
0 |
9 |
53 |
196 |
401 |
597 |
|
Team Charles* |
158 |
43 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
66 |
224 |
440 |
664 |
|
Team Grace* |
154 |
40 |
15 |
1 |
9 |
65 |
219 |
425 |
644 |
|
Team Hugo* |
207 |
51 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
78 |
285 |
522 |
807 |
|
Team Josh* |
176 |
49 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
76 |
252 |
539 |
791 |
|
Team Matthew* |
160 |
43 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
66 |
226 |
437 |
663 |
|
Team Oliver* |
150 |
37 |
12 |
1 |
4 |
54 |
204 |
379 |
583 |
|
Team Tadej* |
209 |
54 |
15 |
0 |
14 |
83 |
292 |
581 |
873 |
|
Team Wesley* |
103 |
27 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
39 |
142 |
316 |
458 |
Complete breakdown of points from stage 3 (including adults):
|
132 |
37 |
12 |
1 |
12 |
62 |
194 |
413 |
607 |
|
|
Team Allison |
136 |
33 |
10 |
0 |
8 |
51 |
187 |
372 |
559 |
|
Team Amalia* |
144 |
40 |
13 |
1 |
5 |
59 |
203 |
418 |
621 |
|
Team Ambrose |
134 |
39 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
62 |
196 |
393 |
589 |
|
Team Amelia |
215 |
54 |
15 |
0 |
14 |
83 |
298 |
600 |
898 |
|
Team Ansel* |
216 |
51 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
78 |
294 |
555 |
849 |
|
Team Caleb* |
160 |
43 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
66 |
226 |
476 |
702 |
|
Team Cameron |
143 |
33 |
11 |
0 |
9 |
53 |
196 |
401 |
597 |
|
Team Cameron* |
60 |
13 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
20 |
80 |
193 |
273 |
|
Team Charles* |
158 |
43 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
66 |
224 |
440 |
664 |
|
Team Charlotte |
179 |
38 |
12 |
0 |
10 |
60 |
239 |
440 |
679 |
|
Team Corsa |
161 |
49 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
76 |
237 |
443 |
680 |
|
Team Craig |
200 |
51 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
78 |
278 |
485 |
763 |
|
Team Ed |
156 |
43 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
66 |
222 |
465 |
687 |
|
Team Ellie |
147 |
40 |
15 |
1 |
9 |
65 |
212 |
408 |
620 |
|
Team Eric |
195 |
49 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
76 |
271 |
499 |
770 |
|
Team Erin |
161 |
35 |
10 |
0 |
5 |
50 |
211 |
404 |
615 |
|
Team Furner |
166 |
37 |
12 |
0 |
12 |
61 |
227 |
408 |
635 |
|
Team Grace |
154 |
40 |
15 |
1 |
9 |
65 |
219 |
425 |
644 |
|
Team Grace* |
89 |
19 |
9 |
4 |
0 |
32 |
121 |
239 |
360 |
|
Team Hugo* |
207 |
51 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
78 |
285 |
522 |
807 |
|
Team Izzy |
113 |
26 |
14 |
1 |
5 |
46 |
159 |
284 |
443 |
|
Team Jon |
182 |
52 |
15 |
0 |
14 |
81 |
263 |
512 |
775 |
|
Team Jonathan |
191 |
46 |
13 |
0 |
9 |
68 |
259 |
503 |
762 |
|
Team Jonwaine |
225 |
52 |
13 |
0 |
14 |
79 |
304 |
574 |
878 |
|
Team Josh* |
176 |
49 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
76 |
252 |
539 |
791 |
|
Team Julie |
178 |
45 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
72 |
250 |
505 |
755 |
|
Team Kari |
208 |
52 |
15 |
0 |
14 |
81 |
289 |
531 |
820 |
|
Team Kate |
154 |
37 |
12 |
0 |
4 |
53 |
207 |
384 |
591 |
|
Team Kent |
215 |
52 |
15 |
0 |
14 |
81 |
296 |
590 |
886 |
|
Team Kurt |
178 |
42 |
15 |
0 |
10 |
67 |
245 |
474 |
719 |
|
Team Laurens |
200 |
49 |
13 |
0 |
12 |
74 |
274 |
505 |
779 |
|
Team Lichterman |
119 |
27 |
11 |
0 |
5 |
43 |
162 |
309 |
471 |
|
Team Matthew* |
160 |
43 |
15 |
0 |
8 |
66 |
226 |
437 |
663 |
|
Team Melanie |
187 |
49 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
76 |
263 |
523 |
786 |
|
Team Oliver* |
150 |
37 |
12 |
1 |
4 |
54 |
204 |
379 |
583 |
|
Team Rob |
191 |
49 |
15 |
0 |
12 |
76 |
267 |
528 |
795 |
|
Team Sam |
70 |
15 |
5 |
0 |
3 |
23 |
93 |
132 |
225 |
|
Team Senna# |
98 |
27 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
39 |
137 |
286 |
423 |
|
Team Suzanne |
139 |
39 |
13 |
5 |
8 |
65 |
204 |
417 |
621 |
|
Team Tadej* |
209 |
54 |
15 |
0 |
14 |
83 |
292 |
581 |
873 |
|
Team Valerie |
65 |
19 |
11 |
5 |
0 |
37 |
102 |
180 |
282 |
|
Team Wesley |
103 |
27 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
39 |
142 |
316 |
458 |
|
Team Wesley* |
128 |
34 |
9 |
0 |
8 |
51 |
179 |
326 |
505 |
-Laurens.