Sam Bennett at the end of a 3rd stage led by two riders in Paris-Nice 2017

tuesday 07 March 2017 at 22h38

And the start order and times as well as a video of the race route of the individual time trial at the end of the article.

The third stage of Paris-Nice 2017 could have seen the breakaway decide for the stage victory but in the it was caught back only in the last kilometer and the two survivors of the initial leading trio thus realised that the stage victory would be decided in a bunch sprint once again and this time it was Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe)'s turn to win it!

The summary of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2017: Chablis > Chalon-sur-Saône

The 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2017, 190 kilometers long, started 5 minutes later than planned in Chablis because of the wind going in the direction of the race which meant that the anticipated average speed was quite important.

This apparently gave some ideas to get off right from the first kilometer to Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale), Benjamin King (Dimension Data) and Romain Combaud (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) and rather quickly this leading trio created an important gap of no less than 7 minutes at the intermediate sprint in Epoisses, which was won by Combaud, and which even went up to the maximum gap of 8 minutes at kilometer 86.

Led by the FDJ team and later on also by Katusha Alpecin, the peloton however comes closer from there on, and arrived for example 3'30" after the breakaway on top of the first climb of the day, the Côte de Grandmont (kilometer 128) where King arrived first on top.

At about fourty kilometers from the finish they still have a 2 minutes gap however, but the peloton continues to get closer to the leading trio. In the climb of the second mountain, first difficulty of the second category, the Côte de Charrecey, Pierre Latour decided to attack close to the end of this climb, followed rather closely by Romain Combaud who arrives 5 seconds after Latour on top. King is at 25 seconds at that time and the peloton led by the polka dot jersey, Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), arrives on top with a 40 seconds delay.

A new leading duo was formed when Combaud bridges the gap with Latour and a 15 kilometers from the finish the two French riders still have a 35 seconds gap. The sprinters teams are chasing behind however, especially in the ten last kilometers and at 3 kilometers from the finish the breakaway feels them coming because the gap is then no less than 15 seconds. It was however only when they passed under the red flag indicating the last kilometer that they were taken back and it became quite sure that the stage would end in a sprint.

After the last curve, Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) made his legs talk to win this stage in the sprint, ahead of Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin) and John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo).

The video summary of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2017

The classifications of Paris-Nice 2017 after the 3rd stage

Here are the classifications after this 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2017 between Chablis and Chalon-sur-Saône:

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The classification of the 3rd stage: Chablis > Chalon-sur-Saône

Here's the top 10 of this 3rd stage:

1/ Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) - 4h31'14"
2/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin)
3/ John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo)
4/ Marcel Kittel (Quick-Step Floors)
5/ Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)
6/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ)
7/ André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal)
8/ Christophe Laporte (Cofidis, solutions crédits)
9/ Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension Data)
10/ Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott)

General classification

In the general classification, no changes, Arnaud Démare (FDJ) is still leading:

1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ) - 12h14'42"
2/ Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) - +0'06"
3/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin) - +0'13"
4/ Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors) - +0'17"
5/ Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) - +0'19"

Points classification

In the points classification we also still Arnaud Démare leading, knowing that John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) and Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin) start to get closer to the French rider:

1/ Arnaud Démare (FDJ) - 29 points
2/ John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) - 24 points
3/ Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha Alpecin) - 23 points
4/ Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) - 15 points
5/ Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) - 15 points

King of the Mountains classification

Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) managed to take 2 additional points for his precious polka dot jersey, getting on top of the 2nd difficulty in 4th position, leading the peloton. Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) is now his first competitor, knowing that he still is 6 points behind however:

1/ Romain Hardy (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) - 14 points
2/ Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) - 8 points
3/ Benjamin King (Dimension Data) - 7 points
4/ Romain Combaud (Delko Marseille Provence KTM) - 7 points
5/ Luke Rowe (Team Sky) - 2 points

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Best young rider classification

Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) definitely remains clearly in the lead of the best young rider classification and it'll now be easier for him to keep his jersey white since the weather's gotten a bit better after the first two days with very bad weather:

1/ Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) - 12h14'48"
2/ Davide Formolo (Cannondale-Drapac Professional Cycling Team) - +1'12"
3/ Simon Yates (Orica-Scott)
4/ Sven Erik Byström (Team Katusha Alpecin) - +2'45"
5/ Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott) - +3'04"

What follows: tomorrow the individual time trial on the Mont Brouilly

Tomorrow, the general classification will most probably be messed up completely, but one thing is sure: Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) won't be able to catch up in this race against the clock because the rider who was one of the favourites at the start of the race is now at 15'17" behind Arnaud Démare already!

Anyway, if you want to know who starts when, open the following file:

>> Start order and times for the individual time trial of Paris-Nice 2017 between Beaujeu and the Mont Brouilly (after having opened it, click on the arrows at the bottom right corner to zoom in)

>> The race route of the individual time trial in Paris-Nice 2017 between Beaujeu and the Mont Brouilly on Google Maps

The race route of the time trial in video, seen from Tony Gallopin's bike

Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) went out to discover the race route of Paris-Nice 2017's individual time trial between Beaujeu and the Mont Brouilly and the video he recorded was published on Kinomap. You can discover the race route in video below (unfortunately the last part of the climb is missing):

photos : A.S.O./Alex Broadway

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Paris-Nice | Paris-Nice 2017