Paris-Nice: Mads Pedersen wins stage three sprint

Trek - Segafredo have gotten their third win of the season today at Paris-Nice as Mads Pedersen stormed to a brilliant win in the final bunch sprint, as race leader Christophe Laporte crashed behind.

Eyeing a stage suited to them, breakaway experts Thomas de Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Alexis Gougeard (B&B Hotels-KTM) launched an early move to be in the breakaway, with the company of Owain Doull (EF Education-EasyPost). Despite being a quality group, the chase from the peloton was strong and consistent throughout the day and the trio ended up caught with 25 kilometers to go at the base of the last two hilltops.

On the Côte de le Peyroux there were several attacks, with Soren Kragh Andersen, Kevin Geniets and Mathieu Burgaudeau between them, but with no success as Cofidis and Jumbo-Visma made the ascent hard, dropping the likes of Fabio Jakobsen and Dylan Groenewegen.

Andersen tried once again a move with 8 kilometers to go, but with the peloton at full speed little could be done, and the peloton furiously moved into the slight uphill finish at Dun-le-Palestel. Trek were the team whose leadout worked the best as Jasper Stuyven put Pedersen in prime position and, despite launching very early at 250 meters to go, the Dane managed to keep everyone in his wheel for a brilliant win.

Bryan Coquard and Wout van Aert completed the podium, in a sprint that saw Christophe Laporte hit the deck. Luckily it did not seem as if the injuries were meaningful.