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It was still a decent time from EF, who place 6th at 23 seconds.
INEOS GRENADIERS WIN THE STAGE
We’re now just waiting for EF Education-EastPost to come home.
Lewis Askey crosses the line alone for NSN, posting the 17th best time of the day.
Lamperti has swung off and been dropped! That means the yellow jersey will indeed go to Juan Ayuso.
The only remaining question is whather Ayuso will indeed take the yellow jersey. To prevent him, and keep it on Lamperti’s shoulders EF need to get their man to the line within eight seconds.
With none of the remaining teams near to Ineos at the first time check, it does look as though they will take the stage win.
But it won’t be enough for the yellow jersey. Vauquelin didn’t gain the four seconds he needed to go ahead of Juan Ayuso.
Tarling sits up, and Vauquelin is sprinting to the line…
The other two are struggling to keep up with Tarling – a gap has opened up between them.
Here comes Ineos to the finish, with Vauqulin, Onley and Tarling…
EF are going well, and haven’t given up on defending Lamperti’s yellow. They’re 16 seconds down at the time check, which just about keeps him in the virtual jersey – for now.
Here’s Ineos earlier on the course. They’re now down to just three riders as they near the finish.
The stage win is on for Ineos Grenadiers if they keep their pace from the first half up, as is the yellow jersey. Although they’ll need to be four seconds quicker at the finish, as Ayuso gained that much time yesterday after the intermediate sprint.
Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe finish, and it’s a good time – they’re 4th at the finish, at at 18 seconds.
Ineos are down to five riders, as they come closer and closer to the finish.
One of those teams are Ineos Grenaiders – and they’re on a great day, 13 seconds quicker than Lidl at the time check!
Ayuso looks well poised for the yellow jersey at this rate, and the stage – but there are still some strong teams to finish.
Vacek swings off, and Ayuso is sprinting to the line.
Ayuso and Vacek are approaching the finish for Lidl, can they do it and post the best time? It’s going to be close…
Tudor Pro Cycling finish with the 8th best time.
Lidl are down to just three riders now – Ayuso, Vacek and Söderqvist.
Red Bull are going well, just 10 seconds down at the first time check. That’s good news for their GC leaders.
EF Education-EasyPost start their ride, for what is likely to be Luke Lamperti’s last outing in yellow.
Lidl have powerful engines such as Søren Kragh Andersen and Mathias Vacek to pull them along, but won’t have the luxury that Decathlon did of being able to let their best time trialist ride away – they have an obligation to protect their GC man Juan Ayuso, and therefore won’t want anyone riding away without him in their slipstream.
NSN are the penultimate team to start, leaving just EF Education-EasyPost.
But for how long will Decathlon lead? There time has just been bettered by Lidl-Trek at the time check, albeit by only two seconds. This could be a really close one.
Decathlon, the leaders in the clubhouse.
A powerful looking Ineos is the third-to-last team to start. With Kévin Vauquelin, Michał Kwiatkowski and no less than Josh Tarling riding, they could challenge for the win.
XDS Astana have started. Their leader Harold Tejada will need the team to do a strong ride to keep him up there on GC.
That’s a special ride by Dan Hoole, who showed some of his form yesterday with a late attack that nearly denied the sprinters, and was evidently still fresh today.
Red Bull-Bora Hasngrohe have started, with high hopes for their two GC men Vlasov and Martinez.
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Cofidis have finished, and with a surprisingly good time. They’re fourth best, at 26 seconds.
UAE on the course earlier. They might have paid for burning through too many riders too quickly, unlike leaders Visma-Lease a Bike
Decathlon are all breaking up now – Hoole is all out front on his own. You can only imagine that they’re riding for the stage, rather than Prodhomme’s GC bid.
Scotson was the fourth Decathlon rider, and he’s swung off, leaving just the three.
Lidl-Trek have just started. Their GC leader is Juan Ayuso, who had an eventful day yesterday, gaining some bonus seconds but also narrowly avoiding a crash.
‘I went farming today’ – Juan Ayuso avoids Paris-Nice stage 2 crashes by riding into field
They’re down to just four riders now – Prodhomme, Hoole, Bissegger, and one other.
With Bissegger and Hoole in their line-up, there’s plenty of firepower in this Decathlon lineup, but we weren’t anticipating them pushing Visma-Lease a Bike.
Only now do Decathlon lose their first rider, Bol. They’re absolutely flying.
A real turn up for the books here – there’s a new fastest time at the intermediate time check, and it’s from Decathlon!
Romeo clips clear of the rest, and seals them the second fastest time, 13 seconds down on Visma. It’s very good, but not enough to get near the win.
Movistar are approaching the finish, with four riders still together.
Uno-X Mobility are the latest team off the start ramp, another without clear GC ambitions.
Martinez and Caruso cross the line together for Bahrain-Victorious, sealing 5th place.
Alpecin begin, with a line-up full of tough Belgian but no GC contenders.
NEW FASTEST TIME – VISMA-LEASE A BIKE
Campanaerts swings off, leaving just Vingegaard, Armirail and Piganzoli left.
Visma are nearing the finish, still with four riders.
Lotto Intermarché are off. They came agonisingly close to taking the yellow jersey for Braet yesterday, but it’s unlikely they’ll be anywhere near by the end of today’s stage.
Movistar are going well. They’re third fastest at the time check, currently keeping pace with UAE.
Decathlon are off, though with their star Paul Seixas they’ll keep a low profile
Groupama-FDJ, on their way to setting the fastest time of the day.
Cofidis have started, unlikely to be up there competing with the top teams today.
Visma are looking good – they’re 3 seconds up on UAE at the first check!
Visma-Lease a Bike, by contrast, are keeping their men mostly together. Only now does their first, Zingle, drop off.
UAE’s strategy seems to be to burn through riders in fast intervals. They’re down to just two riders as they near the finish – just Soler and McNulty.
Soudal-QuickStep are riding, with a team full of powerful classics men, pls spindly climber Valentin Paret-Peintre.
Slight issue for UAE as the rider following Soler lost his wheel. In team time trials cohesion is crucial, and such incidents can lose both time and momentum.
Movistar are the lastest team to start, hoping to do a good ride on behalf of their leader Iván Romeo.
No surprise at the first time check as UAE Team Emirates – XRG set the new fastest time, 8 seconds better than Jayco.
PicnicPost-NL are the first team home to the finish, with a time of 28:19.
They finished with only two riders over the line – this is a time trial where the recently innovated rules apply, in which riders are given their own time at the finish, rather than collectively a team, and there’s no obligation to finish with a minimum number of riders together.
Groupama-FDJ are going hard. They’re only two seconds slower than Jayco. at the time check.
Bahrain-Victorious will be starting shortly. Their star Lenny Martinez has downplayed his GC chances, claiming he’s more interested in stage wins, but a good ride today would nevertheless keep him up in contention having not lost time yet.
Pinarello are through the first time check, 20 seconds down on Jayco. Jayco could be the early pace-setters.
Visma are off, with Campanaerts taking the lead to begin with.
A big moment now, as Visma-Lease a Bike are about to begin. They’ll really want to lay down a marker today, and anything less than a win would feel like a disappointment.
Jayco are going hard, and burning through riders. They’re down to just four already.
Jayco have come through the time check, and are 30 seconds faster than PicnicPostNL. There could be some big time gaps today.
The all-French line-up of TotalEnergies are next to start, not going into this stage with many expectations.
Picnic PostNL are through the day’s one and only intermediate time check, situated about halfway into the course. They completed it in 16:22.
The first real contenders for the stage win are about to begin – UAE Team Emirates-XRG. Their GC man Brandon McNulty is an excellent time trialist, and will be supported today by the likes of Nils Politt and Ivo Oliveira.
Fourth out the start ramp is one of the teams to keep an eye on – Groupama-FDJ. Their leader David Gaudu might not have shown much form lately, but he did manage to finish second overall at Paris-Nice three years ago. If he’s to repeat that, he’ll need his team to put in a strong ride today.
The third team, Pinarello Q36.5, have just begun. They have Eddie Dunbar in their line-up, who could be eyeing up a high place on the GC.
Second off the start ramp are Jayco-Alula, already a man down after Kelland O’Brien. They too don’t have an obvious man for the GC.
Picnic-PostNL don’t have a clear GC candidate, so may take this relatively easy. Instead their focus has been on the sprints, although they didn’t manage to get their man Casper van Uden involved in the previous two stages.
Just five minutes until Picnic-PostNL roll off the start ramp to get things underway.
The significance of this stage isn’t just in relation to Paris-Nice, but also the Tour de France coming up later this year. For the first time since 1971, that race will open with a team time trial of similar length, and many teams are using today as a trial-run.
Having won this year last year, and boasting a powerful line-up of elite time trialists such as Edoardo Affini, Victor Campanaerts and Bruno Armirail in addition to GC man Jonas Vingegaard are probably the favourites. Here they were earlier today reconning the course.
Picnic-PostNL will be the first team off at 14:10 GMT, and the team of yellow jersey Luke Lamperti, EF Education-EasyPost, the last at 15:34 GMT.
Here’s the full run-down of the starting times.
It is, therefore, a potentially race-shaping stage, long enough for significant time to be won and lost, to potentially determine who ends up being the overall winner. So each of the GC favourites will need their squads to bring their A-game.
It’s time for the team time trial, which has been a feature of Paris-Nice since 2023.
Bonjour and welcome to stage three of Paris-Nice!
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