Tim Merlier won a dramatic stage three of the Tour de France as a string of crashes caused chaos in the final 10 kilometres. Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic both suffered painful tumbles and lost time, defending champion Tadej Pogacar was held up by an incident inside the last four kilometres, while both Mark Cavendish and Caleb Ewan were denied the opportunity to contest the stage.
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Mathieu van der Poel won Stage 2 with a blistering ride over the double-ascent at Mur-de-Bretagne to take the yellow jersey in mesmerising style. Slovenians Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic led the chase six seconds down but Julian Alaphilippe could only manage fifth place and conceded the race lead to the Dutch debutant after another dramatic day on the Tour de France.
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France’s Julian Alaphilippe swapped the rainbow bands for the yellow jersey after winning a dramatic opening stage of the Tour de France in swashbuckling style. The world champion attacked two kilometres from the finish to take a brilliant solo win in Landerneau after two huge pile-ups marred the finale of a tough curtain raiser in Brittany, with four-time winner Chris Froome hitting the deck.
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The Marseille prosecutor’s office say they are carrying out an investigation into a “small part” of the Arkea-Samsic team, who competed at the Tour de France. Prosecutor Dominique Laurens says the investigation started after the “discovery of many health products including drugs… and especially a method that could be qualified as doping”.
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Sam Bennett won Stage 21 of the Tour de France in Paris to secure the points classification green jersey as Tadej Pogacar took the overall title after three weeks of dramatic Grand Tour racing. Bennett only needed to finish safely on the Champs Elysees to secure green, but made it a truly special day for Irish cycling with a famous stage win.
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