Date: Monday, July 7
Distance: 178km
Start location: Valenciennes
Finish location: Dunkirk
Start time: 13:10 CEST
Finish time: 17:18 CEST (approx.)
One of the most famous sons of Valenciennes, the departure point of stage three, was the painter Antoine Watteau, one of the pioneers of the Rococo style that took over the art world in the early 17th century. The bucolic, pastoral scenes he specialised in, depicting an idealised version of the countryside, could hardly be more different from the reality of the surrounding area, which was instead shaped by the industrial steel and textile industries.
This landscape will be recognisable to cycling fans as Paris-Roubaix country — the Arenberg Forest, one of the most famous sites of that race, is located a mere 10 kilometres away from Valenciennes. Yet the organisers have chosen not to include any of that race’s notorious pavé sectors; much to the disappointment of fans who’d have relished the rare and thrilling spectacle of cobblestone racing at a Grand Tour, but to the relief of many GC contenders and their staff, anxiously aware of how one piece of bad luck on such a chaotic stage, be it a crash of puncture, can see their dreams of a high GC finish unravel even this early in the race.
Instead, the riders will stick to flat, tarmacked roads as they make their way through the Nord department before arriving at the coast for a finish in Dunkirk, which will be the northernmost point of this Tour de France. Dunkirk is, of course, now inextricably associated with the Operation Dynamo evacuation in 1940 during World War II, when an assortment of boats were hastily and pluckily assembled and sent from across the English Channel to rescue over 300,000 Allied soldiers who had been left with no other way of escape after being encircled on land by the Germans.
This ‘Dunkirk spirit’, of stoically rallying to do what needs to be done and heroically salvaging what you can from a dire situation, might not seem applicable on a stage so lacking in obvious hazards for the GC riders; one that not only bypasses all the potential cobbled sectors, but also, featuring just the one category four climb and a mere 800m of elevation gain, is the flattest of the entire 2025 Tour de France. But even on such mild roads, things can go wrong. The atmosphere will be tense, and there will be intense jostling for position as the riders try to stay up safely towards the front, making an acute risk of crashes. Should a GC man go down in one, he’ll need his own fleet of valiant domestiques to come to his rescue and limit their losses.
If for the GC men today is merely about survival, for the sprinters there is a stage to be won, on a rare day in which no spanners have been thrown in the works by the organisers. While Dunkirk hasn’t hosted a Tour stage finish since a prologue won by Christophe Moreau at the 2001 Grand Départ, the city is the regular finale of the longstanding Four Days of Dunkirk stage race, with Sam Bennett, Tim Merlier and Gerben Thijssen the most recent victors. Expect pure sprinters in their mould to contest for the win today.
Contenders
Stage three looks like a nailed-on sprint, but so far the Tour has tried to throw in as much unpredictability as possible in the opening stages.
But there are too many teams with sprinters in this race that will not want to miss an opportunity for victory, particularly given that many of them were caught in the crosswind splits on stage one, a mistake they won't want to make again.
One sprinter who didn't miss out was Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who was rewarded with a day in yellow after his team successfully delivered him to victory in Lille. He'll go into this stage as favourite, but in reality, we've yet to see him match up against the full field of sprinters here.
Among them, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) look like the standout challengers to Philipsen, but the likes of Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-Alula) and Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) should also be in the mix.
Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) will be hoping to recapture some of the form he showed last year, but an injury sustained late on stage two means it's currently unclear how he'll be feeling ahead of a bunch finish.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL), Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious), Arnaud Demaré (Arkéa B&B), and Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) are amongst the plethora of sprinters with a chance of a top result on stage three.
Prediction
We think European champion Tim Merlier will take the stage win in Dunkirk.
