A blanket sprint finish ended with three German sprinters on the podium – but in which order? Read on…

Stage 3: Nation Towers to Big Flag, 133km

A tough headwind sprint came down to a photo finish. Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb) was given the nod over fellow countrymen Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) and Pascal Ackermann (BORA-hansgrohe) for Sunweb’s first victory of the year. Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) finished fourth and retains the race lead by 3secs thanks to crucial bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint.

Video…

In the style of a Mark Twain misquote – “Reports of Kittel’s demise have been greatly exaggerated”…

Brilliant to see Kittel not worry so much about his train and just thread his way through the charging bunch with precision and power. Surely a confidence booster and that first victory looks a lot closer.

Gazprom-RusVelo have targeted podium time with the intermediate sprint jersey. Nikolay Trusov claimed it on stage one and he’s retained it thanks to some smart teamwork getting a rider in the break every day. I do admire the way their team tweets are not over hyped #decent .

Full race report at Cycling News

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Header image: Photo finish- Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images