ParisNice (st. 3)

Nairo Quintana, Movistar Team unscathed after easier day with no major crosswind attempts, pese a la caída para Valls y Soler nada más comenzar la tercera jornada. Mañana miércoles, cuatro altos en los últimos 70 km.

Irishman Sam Bennett (BOH) took the win at the bunch sprint finish of stage three in the 2019 Paris-Nice, a southbound course (200km) from Cepoy to Moulins / Yzeure. The race wasn’t really on for its opening three hours, covered at 34kph average as the peloton sought for some ‘rest’ after two days in the echelons.

The Movistar Team kept Nairo Quintana well protected today, with Jürgen Roelandts, Rafa Valls and Héctor Carretero keeping the Boyacá native near the front of the bunch. It wasn’t an incident-free day, though, as a crash just 3km after the start involved Valls and Marc Soler, the Catalan youngster suffering some blows and bruises which kept him hurting during the day. Roelandts, Anacona and Soler were also affected by a pile-up into a narrow bridge with 30km remaining, yet didn’t even fall down into that incident.

Quintana remains 25″ behind race leader Dylan Groenewegen (TJV), after bonuses at intermediate sprints meant Sky duo Egan Bernal (8″ ahead) and Michal Kwiatkowski (-19″) slightly increased their gaps against Nairo. The first real mountains await the ‘Cóndor’ on Wednesday, with no less than 212km en route to Pélussin with four climbs in the last 60k and a slightly uphill finish.

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto.net