Tour de France: Merlier wins crash-marred third stage as injuries force Philipsen out
Philipsen's team Alpecin said in a statement that surgery would be required.
Much of what the team had planned for the Tour revolved around the sprinter — who won the opening stage — teammate Van der Poel revealed. "It's always one of our goals to win stages, so this is a bad day," the 30-year-old said. Van der Poel suggested the wind had emboldened the sprinters.
"In a headwind, it's easier to come from behind in the sprints, it made things more chaotic," he said.
There were three more falls, including two nasty-looking ones in the finale with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, Merlier's teammate, involved. Merlier, 32, grew up just over the border from Dunkirk and had been hoping to win the opening stage on Sunday. "That was a mess," Merlier said of the falls. "I lost a great deal of energy getting in position but it was a good bike throw. I knew I'd beat Milan."
Milan led over most of the final 150m, but even without sealing the stage win, his efforts were still rewarded as he inherited the green sprint points jersey from the stricken Philipsen.
Van der Poel in the leader's yellow jersey is the grandson of French cycling legend Raymond Poulidor, who came second in the Tour de France seven times, but never won and never got to don the yellow tunic. Another Belgian, the national champion Tim Wellens, gave cross-border fans even more to celebrate as he won the day's only climb, the 2.3km ascent of Mont Cassel at 31km from the finish line.
The 34-year-old will now hold the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey overnight.
Tim Merlier of Belgium has one the Tour de France's third stage. Source: Getty / Tim de Waele Frenchman Kevin Vauquelin is in the best under-25 rider's white jersey after staying in the finishing mix in all three stages. Regional police said one million spectators had lined the roadsides on the opening day, and while rain dissuaded that kind of turnout for stage two, huge crowds turned out again for the run to Dunkirk.
After 11 bikes were stolen from outside the Cofidis team's hotel on Sunday, all were all found before the stage's end — five of them were recovered abandoned in a forest early Monday, with the others being tracked down by the police later in the day.
The Tour de France's third stage was a 179km flat run from Valenciennes along the Belgian border. Source: Getty / Dario Belingheri Tuesday's fourth stage is a 174km run from Amiens, as the Tour leaves the North region, to Rouen in Normandy, with five hills in the final 25km designed to spark a series of race-splitting attacks. The first section of the Tour is raced through the north and west of France. The volcanic landscape of the Puy de Dome presents the first mountains as late as stage 10, with two more colossal climb days in the Pyrenees before the blockbuster final week in the Alps. The place to watch the 2025 Tour de France — LIVE, FREE and EXCLUSIVE — plus the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, is right here on the SBS On Demand Hub .
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He briefly distanced Vingegaard, who was the only man who could follow, and took the points, before the Dane got back onto his wheel. Remco Evenepoel dragged a handful of riders back across to the leading pair on the descent into Rouen, Van der Poel among them, but there would be no beating the world champion to victory. "I think today I got very, very close to the limit," Pogacar said. "I tried with an attack on the last climb and then Jonas followed me and everything came together. "To win at the Tour is incredible, to do it in this jersey even more so and to win 100 victories is amazing. "Tomorrow is the real test. Already to win a stage in this jersey for me it's enough. Of course we aim for yellow and we will see." Evenepoel conceded another three seconds to Pogacar and Vingegaard, leaving him 58 seconds off yellow, while Primoz Roglic lost 32 seconds to fall one minute 27 seconds down. Tadej Pogacar has claimed the 100th victory of his professional career to move level on time with Mathieu van der Poel in the yellow jersey on a thrilling stage four of the Tour de France in Rouen. In the hometown of the Tour's first five-time winner Jacques Anquetil, Pogacar took a stride to what he hopes will be his fourth title with a show of strength on another classics-style stage, beating Van der Poel and his great rival Jonas Vingegaard in an uphill sprint. It was Pogacar's 18th career Tour stage win and one that put him on the same time as Van der Poel - who retains yellow on countback - with Vingegaard eight seconds back going into Wednesday's time trial. Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) was the highest placed Australian, finishing 39 seconds behind in 28th while Ben O'Connor (Jayco AlUla), still seeming troubled by Monday's crash, lost another 1:49. He is now 2:36 adrift on GC with Haig six places ahead in 23rd, 2:05 behind the leaders. The 174 km route from Amiens, had five categorised climbs, all in the last 50 km. Lenny Martinez, the last survivor of a four-man breakaway, was collected with around 20 km left as Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad and Vingegaard's Visma-Lease A Bike team came to the fore, quickly making a major reduction in the peloton as few could keep with the pace. Pogacar attacked on the steepest section of the last categorised climb, doing 24kph with gradients hitting 15 per cent on the Rampe Saint-Hilaire. He briefly distanced Vingegaard, who was the only man who could follow, and took the points, before the Dane got back onto his wheel. Remco Evenepoel dragged a handful of riders back across to the leading pair on the descent into Rouen, Van der Poel among them, but there would be no beating the world champion to victory. "I think today I got very, very close to the limit," Pogacar said. "I tried with an attack on the last climb and then Jonas followed me and everything came together. "To win at the Tour is incredible, to do it in this jersey even more so and to win 100 victories is amazing. "Tomorrow is the real test. Already to win a stage in this jersey for me it's enough. Of course we aim for yellow and we will see." Evenepoel conceded another three seconds to Pogacar and Vingegaard, leaving him 58 seconds off yellow, while Primoz Roglic lost 32 seconds to fall one minute 27 seconds down.
