Tour de France: Groenewegen wins stage 3 sprint in Sønderborg

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Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco) sprinted to his fifth career Tour de France stage win in Sønderborg, the final day on Danish soil, with the Dutchman edging out yellow jersey Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) by centimetres.

Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took third place a touch behind, while Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) was fourth in a four-way photo finish at the line. Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) was fifth after losing his lead-out in the final straight.

"It was a long way [back]," Groenewegen, who was caught in a crash mid-peloton at 10km to go, said after the finish. "I want to say thanks to my team, family and friends to bring me back to the Tour in a good shape. It's beautiful.

"Not physically but mentally it was a hard time, of course. After all that happened... This is for my wife and my son. It means a lot for me.

"Yesterday I was a little bit angry at myself. Today we were a long time boxed in. I was also involved in the crash at 9km to go but they brought me back in position and we stayed calm. In the end I was on the right side. Amund [Grøndahl Jansen] brought me in a good position on the left corner. I struggled a bit there but at the finish line it was enough and I still can't believe it."

In a messy sprint, it was Jumbo-Visma who launched first at 200 metres to go with Van Aert hitting the air as Sagan followed behind. The Belgian veered towards the barriers as he went, pushing Sagan a little too close for the Slovakian's comfort as he protested the sprint while crossing the line.

Behind, Caleb Ewan had nowhere to go and smacked his handlebars in frustration as he tried to move around the outside of Sagan. On the other side, Groenewegen found the space that Van Aert had left behind, nipping through between him and Philipsen to dash past inside the dying metres and claim victory.

Stage 2 winner Jakobsen, who started the sprint behind Ewan – who eventually finished ninth – was out of contention for the top places but still grabbed fifth place to take some valuable points away from the finish.

At the end of stage 3, Van Aert continued in the race lead having extended his GC lead to seven seconds on Yves Lampaert (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl).

The third stage of the 2022 Tour de France would be the last one for the peloton in Denmark before heading back to France. The peloton would tackle 182km from Vejle to Sønderborg as they raced on the Danish mainland for the first time. His points classification lead also jumped from one point to 17 over Lampaert's teammate Jakobsen.

Elsewhere, Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) continue in the polka dot and white jerseys.

As with stage 2, three classified hills lay on the route, each offering a single point for the polka dot jersey. Those would be the only difficulties on the route, though, with little else to prevent the sprinters from battling it out at the finish.

How it unfolded

The start of stage 3 played out in much the same way as it did for stage 2, with little resistance as the breakaway simply rode away at the very start of the day. This time, though, instead of four men jumping off the front, it was polka dot jersey wearer Magnus Cort who ventured out alone.

The early kilometres ticked by and no other riders wanted to go on the attack and join the Dane, who was set for a long, lonely ride in his home country, though cheered on once again by the massive crowds that lined the roads for the third day in a row.

With sprint teams QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, Lotto Soudal, and BikeExchange-Jayco leading the peloton, Cort was allowed to ride off and build his advantage up to 6:30 before the first climb of the day, the Côte de Koldingvej, after 28km of racing.

The 29-year-old duly added another point to his stage 2 three-point total on the top of the hill, which he crested at 5:40 up on the peloton.

Following the climb, there were no attempts from any riders to join Cort up the road, leading to very quiet stage which saw very little happen for much of the day.

55km after the first climb, Cort took another point atop the Côte de Hejlsminde Strand as the peloton passed over the top 2:50 up on the peloton. He'd go on to do the same at the final hill of the day, 59km from the finish, to take his KOM points total to six.

In between the final two of three climbs on the stage, the battle for the green jersey was reignited as the riders hit the intermediate sprint at Christiansfeld.

There, Jumbo-Visma and QuickStep-AlphaVinyl put up one-man leadouts for Wout van Aert and Fabio Jakobsen, with the pair collecting 17 and 15 points respectively, while Peter Sagan took 11 and Caleb Ewan took 10.

A handful of kilometres after the final climb of the day, Cort sat up and was brought back by the peloton, meaning it was all together again for the final 53km of the stage.

There was, frankly, little to report after Cort was caught, with a variety of sprinter's teams in control at the front of the peloton and not much reason for any riders to go on the attack. The likes of QuickStep, Lotto, BikeExchange, Bora-Hansgrohe, Groupama-FDJ, and Jumbo-Visma led the way on the flat run-in to Sønderborg.

Spots of rain started to appear at 12km to go, while soon after there was a large spill in the middle of the peloton as the road narrowed, though thankfully nobody was seriously hurt. Later on it emerged that GC contenders such as Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious), Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost), and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) shed over half a minute after getting caught in the crash.

The final run-in saw QuickStep-AlphaVinyl fully in control of the situation, with five riders at the front for Jakobsen. Other trains, such as those of DSM, Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, flowed to the front over the closing 5km, but rounding the final corner it was still the Belgian team leading the way.

Their man Jakobsen, though, was out of position coming around the bend, while up front it was Jumbo-Visma launching the dash for the line. Once again, though, it wasn't to be for Van Aert, who would have to settle for second place for the third day in a row as Groenewegen celebrating his first Tour win since 2019.

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