Results Tour de l'Ain 2026 Stage 3 - Axel Mariault wins final stage as Markel Beloki seals overall triumph
Cycling
Axel Mariault took an excellent reduced sprint finish on the final stage of the 2026 Tour de l'Ain as EF Education-Easypost were denied the clean sweep of wins on THursday. However, Markel Beloki, second on the day, has won the yellow jersey for the general. classification.
131.5 kilometers and just under 3000 meters of climbing proved the perfect finale as riders took in seven categorised climbs as stage 2 winner Markel Beloki attempted to defend his general classification lead with contenders such as Noa Isadore, Jamie Meehan, Nicola Conci and Geoffrey Bouchard among others at 55 seconds behind.
Early in the day, around eight riders broke free from the peloton to contest the day's breakaway. As the day's TV coverage began with 50 kilometers to go, the duo of Gil Gelders and Eivind Broholt Fougner were leading the race, with a gap of 45 seconds back to Johan Jacobs and Patryk Goszczurny and Thor Michielsen just behind and the peloton further behind in chase.
Topping the sixth categorised climb of the day, 20-year-old climber Goszczurny left Jacobs behind to descend towards the final categorised climb of the day - the Col de Menthieres (9.2 km at 6.2% average gradient). Topping with 21 kilometers to go, riders would descend again before several steps of uncategorised climbs to the finish.
The peloton behind would soon catch Jacobs, Goszczurny and Michielsen on the descent before Menthieres as Gelders went at it alone. By 30 kilometers to go and the beginning of the climb, it was just him ahead of the peloton with a dropped Fougnor in the middle.
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Penultimate climb sets the tone for finale
On the climb, Gelders was quickly reeled in in the peloton as the attacks came thick and fast and the field narrowed down. Meehan and Soudal-Quickstep development rider Henrique Bravo put in some big attacks as Beloki defended well thanks to teammate Alex Jefferson Cepeda's assistance.
Six riders went over the top of the climb, including Beloki, Cepeda, Meehan, Bravo as well as Axel Mariault and Huw Buck Jones. Nikola Conci descended well to join as the race reset ahead of the gradual ascent to the finish line.
The attacks came from several within the group as riders joined from behind. With both Cepeda and Beloki sharing the burden of pacing and then neutralising attacks, the kilometers would tick by and the general classification wrapped up.
With two kilometers to go, Cepeda danced away from the group as the favourites looked at eachother as Buck Jones and Conci gave chase. With 500 meters to go Bravo came to the front to wind up the chase as Meehan caught Cepeda and went around him.
But it was Axel Mariault who would make it to the line and take an excellent sprint win for CIC Pro Cycling Academy ahead of Beloki and Brieuc Rollan, who had joined the group in the finale.
Gavin QuinnCycling Journalist
Gavin Quinn is a cycling journalist and ultra-distance cyclist with a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University. Formerly the Press & Communications Officer for Cycling Ireland, Gavin has worked inside the national team at the World Championships and has reported for the Irish Mirror, Mirror UK, and The42.
His expertise is backed by elite-level access, having interviewed stars like Sam Bennett and Ben Healy, as well as immense personal endurance. In 2025, he completed a 12,000km solo cycle from Ireland to Vietnam, following a 4,600km tour across Europe. From the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix to the gradients of the Tourmalet, Gavin’s writing focuses on the "romance and brutality" of the sport. Having visited 50+ countries, he brings a global, cultural perspective to his coverage of the pro peloton for CyclingUpToDate.
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- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
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