Pogacar strikes in Pyrenees to take yellow with searing sprint on Tour stage 3
Despite the presence of a strong breakaway, stage 3 was decided among the GC contenders in an uphill finish in Les Angles, where Tadej Pogacar took the spoils ahead of Jonas Vingegaard
Make us your Google favourite
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) claimed victory on stage 3 of the Tour de France in Les Angles, the first Pyrenean stage of the 2026 edition.
The stage was decided in a selective uphill sprint battle atop the category 3 finish in Les Angles, where Pogačar proved to be the quickest from a selective group ahead of Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost).
A strong 18-rider breakaway formed early after a relentless opening hour of attrition, before the frontline group fractured into a select sextet on the slopes of the Category 1 Col de Toses.
Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) was the final escapee from the original move, but constant, suffocating pressure from UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the peloton meant the French rider was caught with 11.5km remaining, though having secured the polka-dot jersey.
The decisive action kicked off as the fight for position ramped up inside the final 3km, before the categorised ascent began with 1.7km remaining. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led the group under the flamme rouge with Pogacar on the Mexican Champion's wheel with Vingegaard just behind.
However, there was no answer when Pogačar launched his sprint with around 200m to go and rocketed to his 22nd Tour stage win. The time bonus and two-second gap on Vingegaard at the finish was enough to lift him into the yellow jersey ahead of the Dane.
How it unfolded
Stage 3 commenced in Granollers under sweltering conditions, with a severe wildfire threat forcing a spectator ban for the final 40km. Though there were still plenty of fans in attendance inside the finale to cheer on the riders.
The attrition started immediately as a struggling Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Intermarché) was dropped early with 183km to go, while there was a crash just two kilometres later in the peloton that included, most notably, Bruno Armirail (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
Egan Bernal (Netcompany-Ineos), Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) were among the key protagonists in the early phase of the breakaway formation. Yet despite a flurry of dangerous moves, nothing was seemingly able to stick.
That changed with 136km to go when Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility), Nelson Oliveira (Movista), Mattéo Vercher (TotalEnergies), and Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step) slipped clear, quickly carving out an advantage before being joined by George Bennett (NSN), Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Luke Plapp, and Mauro Schmid (both Jayco AlUla).
A 11-rider counter-attack also managed to break clear and bridged across to the front group with 123km remaining.
The eleven riders included Bernal, Alex Aranburu (Cofidis), Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural), Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost), Clément Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ United), Joris Delbove (TotalEnergies), Raul García Pierna (Movistar), Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon CMA CGM), Michael Storer (Tudor), Harold Tejada (XDS Astana), and Vlad Van Mechelen (Bahrain-Victorious).
The escape route from behind was locked as a content peloton settled and the gap began to grow. However, misfortune struck Bernal a short while later, as the Colombian champion suffered a puncture which saw him end up back in the peloton.
Pedersen claimed the maximum 25 points at the intermediate sprint with 97km remaining as he set off in his quest to complete the set of points classification wins at all three Grand Tours.
Despite the strength in the breakaway, their advantage was brought under two minutes thanks to a strong tempo from both Visma and UAE, indicating that the stage win could yet be fought for amongst the GC contenders ahead of the first category one climb of the 2026 Tour, the Col de Toses.
As the peloton loomed, the breakaway fractured. Only six riders, Baudin, Bennett, García Pierna, Prodhomme, Van Mechelen, and Vercher, reached the summit with a slender 1:30 advantage as UAE spearheaded the chase.
Baudin launched an acceleration from the breakaway with 34km remaining on the lower slopes of the Col du Calvaire, and was joined by Prodhomme, in what was the French duo’s last roll of the dice to try and hold off the peloton. Baudin went solo over the Col du Calvaire with 23km remaining as Prodhomme sat up.
Ultimately, Baudin was unable to hold on to his advantage in the final 20km and the stage victory would be contested among the GC contenders.
Result: Tour de France stage 3
Your Ticket to the Tour
Factor Bikes is a high-performance bicycle manufacturer and engineering-first brand, building the fastest UCI-legal racing bikes in the world. We design, prototype, and manufacture our frames in-house, enabling unmatched speed of innovation and uncompromising control over performance.
