Key events
179km to go: Neilson Powless hoovers up two more KOTM points at the first categorised climb of the day, the Category 3 hillock, the Côte de Trabakua. With plenty of Basque cycling nuts lining both side of the wide road to cheer him on, he smiles broadly, raises a hand and flashes a peace sign. Well, that or he was flicking a backwards eff-off v-sign at his riding partner Laurent Pichon. I’m going for the former.
180km to go: The gap is out to 2min 14sec. “Is there any point in staging these long 200k sprint stages, if the various smaller budget teams aren’t interested in legitimising them by sending their riders up the road to wilt in the sun for 150km, before the action starts?” asks Ben Parker.
“Why not just cut straight to the action by starting the race 50k from the finish line? I appreciate the Tour makes money by charging charming French villages for the pleasure of a cycle-past and the chance to put out yellow bunting for the day, but (without meaning to sound cynical) TV revenues must also be important to them … what we have in store for us for most of this afternoon is unlikely to have people glued to their sets.”
Well, you say that Ben, but I have nothing better to do and quite enjoy these long stages where nothing really happens for four hours until assorted teams start getting their ducks in a row about 30 kilometres from home.
186km to go: Powless and Pichon have opened the gap to 1min 26sec and it’s getting bigger with each turn of the pedals. Having lost their race leader Richard Carapaz to a fractured kneecap following a crash in the opening stage of the Tour, any slim GC hopes EF Education–EasyPost’s might have had are already in tatters, so they’ll be hoping for stage wins and to keep Neilson Powless in the polka-dot jersey for as long as possible.
“If I miss one breakaway in the mountains my lead might be gone,” said Powless of his chances of keeping the famous jersey, after snaffling more points in a three-man breakaway yesterday. “It’s a long way to Paris – I have a big fight ahead of me but that would be very nice. I’m already in love with [the polka dot jersey] it’s just a matter of whether I can hold onto it.”
An email: “Mark Cavendish makes a habit of defying predictions and doubts, doesn’t he?” writes Simon Wicks. “The four stages back in 2021 didn’t surprise me as much as others – you could see his form simmering in the spring and when he’s on he’s really on. I thought this year was a season too far, though, even for him – then he got that Giro final stage. Can he pull it off one more time? Can he? Really? Head says absolutely not. Heart? Maybe, just maybe … every sprint stage is going to be agony until he wins.”
They’re racing in stage three: Wearing the polka-dot jersey for King of the Mountains, it’s no surprise to see Neilson Powless attack off the front of the bunch as soon as the signal to begin racing is semaphored by Christian Prudhomme. It looks like Powless will have the French rider Laurent Pichon (Arkea–Samsic) for company as the bunch seem content to let the duo go. The gap is already 35 seconds. It could be a long afternoon …
Fight! Fight! Fight! It seems there are thoroughly unfounded and possibly completely fictitious rumours of the beginning of an early race rift between reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard and his team-mate Wout van Aert following yesterday’s stage. Van Aert finished a well beaten second behind Victor Lafay and made no bones of his anger at losing, plucking his water bottle from its cage and flinging it to the ground as he crossed the line.
Reports suggest – and it is only a suggestion – that he was angry at the lack of of support he got from his teammates in the closing stages of yesterday’s race and seem to be based on no evidence more substantial than his visible bristling at being asked to sacrifice his own chances of a stage win in favour of the greater good during an episode of Tour de France Unchained, the Netflix documentary which followed last year’s Tour. “We have different goals but we’re all super- disapppointed, me as well,” said Vingegaard in the wake of yesterday’s stage. “We really wanted Wout to win today.”
Stage three is under way …
Led by Adam Yates (yellow jersey), Neilson Powells (polka-dot), Victor Lafay (green) and Tadej Pogacar (white), the peloton rolls out for its procession through the neutral zone, which is just shy of seven kilometres in length.
Today’s start: Amorebieta-Etxano The commune of the province of Vizcaya is located within the sphere of influence of its large neighbour, Bilbao, explains the Tour handbook. When it comes to sport, the locals are particularly proud of their football club, which was founded almost a century ago and climbed into
Liga 2 for the 2021-2022 season. The SD Amorebieta produced one of the town’s sporting sons, Camelo Cedrun, who was the goalkeeper for Athletic Bilbao and the national team during the 1950s. The former Euskaltel and Movistar rider Beñat Intxausti is also a native of the city.
Amorebieta-Etxano also organises a one-day race, with a roll of honour that features the top names in Spanish cycling, as well as Frenchmen Laurent Jalabert (1995) and, more recently, Jonathan Hivert (2011).
Tour de France 2023: the jerseys
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Yellow: Adam Yates (UAE)
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Green: Victor Lafay (Cofidis)
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Polka-dot: Neilson Powless (EF Education-Easypost)
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White: Tadej Pogacar (UAE)
William Fotheringham on stage three: Finally, something resembling a normal stage for the Tour’s opening week. There are several nasty little Basque Country climbs but they come early in the stage and the run-out is downhill. So it’s bunch sprint time, which means British eyes will be on Mark Cavendish, although the chances are it will be last year’s sprint star, Fabio Jakobsen, in the spotlight.
Stage two report: Lafay wins as Yates remains in yellow
Adam Yates held on to his overall lead in the Tour de France after he safely negotiated a tense second stage, the longest of the 2023 Tour, from Vitoria-Gasteiz to San Sebastián, won by the French Cofidis rider Victor Lafay. Jeremy Whittle reports …
Stage three: Amorebieta-Etxano to Bayonne (187.4km)
Tour de France: After a pair of extremely testing opening stages, the peloton gets something of a breather today during a spin that boasts four categorised climbs in the first 102 kilometres. Riders will have to tackle more of the lumpy stuff with 40 kilometres to go before the stage levels out 15 from home.
Any breakaway that tries its luck is unlikely to succeed and we’re almost certain to be treated to the first bunch sprint of this year’s race. It should be fraught, nervy and downright dangerous affair in which the likes of Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-Al Ula), Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-Quickstep), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Dstny) and Mark Cavendish (Astana) will fancy their chances, although the stiffish climbs earlier and later in the stage may do for a few of them before the race reaches its conclusion in Bayonne.
Riding in his final Tour de France before hanging up his cleats after a stellar career, today marks the first of several decent opportunities Cavendish will have to break the great Eddy Merckx’s longstanding record of 34 career stage wins in the Grande Boucle.
At 38 years old, the Manx Missile’s velocity has been eclipsed by that of some of the peloton’s younger thunder-thighed whelps in recent years but he will set off full of confidence having arrowed first past the winning post in the final stage of the Giro d’Italia in Rome.
Should he fail to prevail today, better opportunities lie ahead. It is to be hoped he can at least avoid trouble before stages with terrain more suited to his particular skill-set. Tomorrow’s pancake-flat profile could well have been designed with a man of his talents in mind. Today’s stage rolls out at noon BST.
