Girmay wins the first sprint of the Tour de France 2024

Bland third stage in the Tour de France 2024 that had the expected outcome in a sprint, although not with the protagonists that one would expect due to a fall in the last kilometers that broke the group. An opportunity that Biniam Girmay did not miss, who had not achieved a top-level victory since last year's Tour de Suisse.

Biniam Girmay prevails in the calm before the alpine storm tomorrow

The longest stage of this Tour de France 2024, with 230 kilometers between Piacenza and Turin, turned into a disguised rest day with most of the peloton thinking more about the tough stage that awaits them tomorrow than about competing in a stage that was expected to end in a sprint.

In fact, the lack of competitiveness on this last day entirely in Italian lands meant that there wasn't even a breakaway in the stage. Only the attack for show by the Frenchman from TotalEnergies, Fabien Grellier, 66 km from the finish, broke the monotony in the peloton's pace a bit. Obviously, an attack that only served to give some television minutes to the French team.

It wasn't until the last 10 km of the stage when the pace began to accelerate, and, as usually happens when there hasn't been much wear during the day and the forces are still intact as we are still at the beginning of the race. Collisions and falls due to tension and the desire of everyone to be at the front of the peloton.

It wasn't due to a fall, but a little over 6 kilometers before the finish, everything started to go wrong for Alpecin-Deceuninck when Mathieu van der Poel punctured and lost any chance of working as the lead-out for the favorite for the day, as was Jasper Philipsen. To top off the black day for the Belgian team, there was a fairly large crash just over 2 kilometers before the conclusion that broke the group, and Philipsen was not among those who made it through.

This left an unusually open sprint that began to be launched by the Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale men for Sam Bennett. However, their momentum was short-lived, and they were overtaken by Jasper Stuyven, who led Mads Pedersen on his wheel, but incredibly, the finish line seemed too far for him as he watched, powerless, as an unexpected guest like Biniam Girmay passed him on his right, easily overtaking and winning the stage decisively, thus breaking a streak of poor performances in major races, having gone practically unnoticed in the last two seasons.

Change of leader in the general classification due to the pedometer with a yellow jersey that fell on the shoulders of Richard Carapaz, although with no time differences in a third stage of the Tour de France 2024 in which the leaders had a relaxed stage and are preparing for the fierce battle that we will presumably enjoy tomorrow on the fearsome Galibier.

Stage 3 Classification

1. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) 5h26'48''
2. Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) +00''
3. Arnaud de Lie (Lotto-Dstny) +00''
4. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) +00''
5. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) +00''
6. Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +00''
7. Fabio Jakobsen (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) +00''
8. Davide Ballerini (Astana) +00''
9. Sam Bennett (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +00''
10. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) +00''

General Classification

1. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 15h20'18''
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +00''
3. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +00''
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
5. Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) +06''
6. Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +21''
7. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) +21''
8. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +21''
9. Jai Hindley (RedBull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +21''
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (RedBull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +21''