Sprint leader Jasper Philipsen crashes out of Tour as Tim Merlier wins chaotic stage three

Tim Merlier took stage three of the Tour de France in Dunkirk, after the points classification leader Jasper Philipsen crashed out of the race 60 kilometres from the finish.

Merlier’s celebrations were muted because of another crash, with three kilometres to race, that took down his Soudal Quick-Step team leader, the Olympic road race champion, Remco Evenepoel, although the Belgian was able to remount and finish the stage.

A pedestrian stage through the regions of Pas de Calais and Nord that seemed destined for an expected sprint turned controversial when the French rider Bryan Coquard caused the crash that forced the Belgian sprinter Philipsen to abandon the race.

Alpecin Deceuninck’s Philipsen was contesting the intermediate sprint at Isbergues when Coquard moved to the right and touched shoulders with an Intermarché Wanty rider, before swerving across into the Belgian rider’s path, causing him to crash.

With the Tour’s top sprinter out of the race, there was little else to write home about. Certainly none of the 38 French contingent in the Tour peloton this year was showing much spirit as the stage wore on, and the absence of any breakaway only emphasised the soporific nature of the stage.

The peloton cycles under decorative streamers hung above the race route in Aire-sur-la-Lys. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

So uneventful was the racing that there was no “prix de combativité” awarded, for the most attacking rider. In fact, the most notable contribution of the French members of the peloton so far has been causing crashes, with Coquard’s takedown of Philipsen following his teammate Benjamin Thomas’s collision with Mattéo Vercher on stage one.

Meanwhile, the defending champion, Tadej Pogacar, was happy to see one of his key lieutenants Tim Wellens slide off the front of the peloton on the approach to the stage’s sole climb, the fourth category Mont Cassel.

Wellens’s brief sortie ensured that the lead in the climber’s classification stayed within the UAE Emirates XRG team, with Pogacar seeming to enjoy the novelty of wearing polka dots instead of yellow. “I’ve only worn it once in six editions of the Tour,” he said of the distinctive climber’s jersey.

For stage four on Tuesday the convoy head towards the Somme for a stage from Amiens, with three climbs in the final 21km, to Rouen.