Philipsen breaks collarbone, then Merlier mocks Milan

During a stage that remained quiet for a long time after two agitated days, the Tour de France lost its Green Jersey, Jasper Philipsen, victim of a fractured collarbone after a bad fall during the intermediate sprint, the only real tense moment until the sprint finish, marked by two more falls, in Dunkirk, this Monday.

Philipsen’s teammate, Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), retains the yellow jersey.
In the absence of a breakaway, the prize for combativeness was not even awarded at the end of this third stage, the peloton proceeded quietly until the intermediate sprint to Isbergues, 60 km from the finish, the first spike in tension that saw the unfortunate fall of Philipsen, collateral victim of a contact between Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis).

In addition to the small raid by Tim Wellens (UAE-XRG) to pick up a point on Mont Cassel and thus free his captain Tadej Pogacar from the polka-dot jersey, we had to witness a chaotic denouement. With 3 km to go, in fact, a first crash knocked down Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), who managed to restart, and sprinter Jordi Meeus (RedBull-Bora), who was more severely affected, lying on the asphalt holding his shoulder.
Then, at the last corner, 300 meters from the finish, an impressive crash sent several riders violently to the ground, including Frenchmen Émilien Jeannière (Total Energies), Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) and Paul Penhoët (Groupama-FDJ).

Ahead, Milan and Merlier played out a very tight sprint, with the Belgian ahead of the Italian by a handful of centimeters, while Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) finished in third place.