Merlier edges out Milan after crash-marred Tour stage
The Soudal Quick-Step rider needed a photo finish to confirm he ended narrowly in front of Milan at the finish line in the coastal city of Dunkerque.
But the stage took a dramatic turn 60km from the end when Belgian rider Jasper Philipsen was forced to withdrew from the race following a heavy crash.
Philipsen hit the road hard following contact with Bryan Coquard during an intermediate sprint, his fall came just two days after winning the opening stage and his injuries made it impossible for him to continue.
The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider had his jersey ripped in several places and suffered bloody scrapes before being attended to by the race doctor shortly afterwards with fears he may have suffered a broken shoulder
Philipsen, who was also wearing the green jersey, ends his Tour on a sour note despite having won the opening stage on Saturday. The race continues around France and finishes on July 27.
But it will at least give an opportunity to his Australian teammate Kaden Groves, who could now step into the breach as lead sprinter for Alpecin-Deceuninck, despite this being his Tour de France debut.
The winner of nine stages across the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana, the 26-year-old Queenslander played his part in helping Philipsen to victory on day one.
He finished seventh in the chasing pack on Monday and now becomes Alpecin-Deceuninck's main sprint focus.
The next highest Australian stage three finishers were Robert Stannard (Bahrain-Victorious) 47th, Jarrad Drizners (Lotto) 57th, Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) 103rd, Michael Storer, Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla) 130th and Harry Sweeny (EF Education) 136th.
O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), Australia's main hope for the General Classification, has moved himself up one more place to ninth position overall.
The peloton rode closely together for most of the 178.3 km flat stage from Valenciennes to Dunkerque.
Seemingly cautious, the riders held back from making any decisive moves, with nearly the entire group staying in the peloton until the final stretch, setting up a mass sprint finish that ended with several riders crashing in the closing metres.
"It was a really hard battle. It was difficult to be in position," Merlier said.
"I think from two kilometres I fought back from behind to come back in position, and I was in the wind all the time, and only with 500 metres to go I found a bit of slipstream. I know next to Milan is always difficult."
The messy finale saw two separate crashes within the last 3km with the first one bringing down several riders, including Geraint Thomas, Jordi Meeus and Remco Evenepoel.
Just ahead of the final corner, several riders lost control and went down, including Alexis Renard, Cees Bol, and Paul Penhoet, who chose to walk his bike across the finish line.
"I lost Bert (Van Lerberghe) before the last corner, but I must say the team did an incredible job in the last 5km, but then the real chaos started and it was really difficult to find position," Merlier added.
Tuesday's The 174-km fourth stage is another hilly one for allrounders like Van der Poel and his former cyclo-cross rival Wout van Aert.
It starts from Amiens and ends with five consecutive small climbs to the Normandy city of Rouen.This race is entirely in France, with no stages held abroad as in previous years.
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