The third Tour stage started in a sunny Antwerp, where thousands of people welcomed the Tour caravan. Then the peloton headed to Wallonia, where the stage finished on the Mur de Huy. The riders had to cover 159.5 kilometres and that didn’t go without any accidents. At the end there always is a winner and today that was the Spaniard Joaquim Rodríguez. Tony Gallopin was fifth, a nice result, and is now fourth overall.

Just like yesterday there was a breakaway of four immediately after the official start. Jan Barta was again one of the escapees. Elmiger, Nauleau and Pauwels accompanied him. Sixty kilometres before the end, ten kilometres before the first of four climbs, there were two big crashes. Greg Henderson was one of the victims. He finished the stage, but went to hospital afterwards.

After the crashes the race organization decided to neutralize the race due to safety reasons. The peloton stopped. When everyone had returned they started moving again. The neutralization continued until the top of the Côte de Bohissau, from then on 50 kilometres were left.

The four escapees were back in the peloton and there were no new attacks until the Mur de Huy. Tony Gallopin held on to a good position in the group that fought for the stage win. The Lotto Soudal rider crossed the finish line as fifth.

Joaquim Rodríguez could hold Froome off and won, but the Briton is the new GC leader. Gallopin is fourth on GC at 26 seconds. André Greipel will ride in the green jersey again tomorrow, he took the maximum of points at the intermediate sprint.

“I’m really glad with this fifth place on the Mur de Huy," Gallopin said. "It was a race like I had expected; we arrived at the bottom with 40 to 50 riders. The teammates helped me to get in a good position and I could turn up the climb as one of the first. I tried to hang on to the same rhythm, so I wouldn’t explode. At a certain moment I was riding at the front, but in the last 200 metres the others were stronger. Nonetheless, a fifth place is a nice result at a finish of which I know it doesn’t completely suit me. That proves the condition is good.

“On the moment of the big crash I just had a puncture. That way I was lucky, otherwise I might have crashed as well. Now I could pass the riders involved and I immediately saw that some were severely injured. The neutralisation was a good decision. Many riders were involved and the damage was huge. People are always talking about the safety of the riders; now everyone could take a pause for a moment.

“I hope everyone will be spared from bad luck tomorrow, because it will be very nervous with the cobbles. We have a team that’s good at this. Sieberg is in top shape, André is very strong, Jens is a rider for the classics, just like Lars and I don’t say ‘no’ to it myself. Depending on the wind I think we will get to the finish with a large group. And then we’ll see. We have different cards to play."

"I'm glad that I keep the green jersey for a second day in a row," Greopel said. "It's important for Lotto-Soudal to have it tomorrow as we're a Belgian team in a stage starting in Belgium. It's a much awaited stage with cobblestones. Belgian fans love that.

"I don't know for how long I'll be chasing points. I'll contest all the bunch sprints when I'll get a chance, whether it's for a finish or an intermediate sprint but we have other goals in the team too. Today, we also wanted to bring Tony Gallopin in a good position and he did a great race. We keep targeting stage wins."