For the second day in a row, Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) finished in the top 10 in a Paris-Nice bunch sprint when he took 6th on the Magny-Cours motor circuit. The Norwegian lamented his bad position as he claimed to be one of the fastest riders in the sprint.

The 180km third stage in the 2014 Paris – Nice stage race ended on the motor track of Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours with the riders using the entire width of the road to produce a group sprint.

Katusha’s Alexander Kristoff once again put himself in a good position for the finish line but came up just short with a sixth place. His consistently high places on each stage keep him in seventh overall for the classification.

"Today I missed a little bit the right position in the beginning of the sprint – I was able to pass more or less 10 riders, but it was impossible to reach the leaders," he said. "What a pity, because I felt good the whole day and I think I was one of the quickest guys on the finish. Anyway I was able to get another Top-10 place in a WorldTour race."

John Degenkolb fired up a ferocious sprint that saw the Giant-Shimano rider still gaining speed as he crossed the finish line. His win gave him the race lead as well, putting former leader Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) into second place by eight seconds. Matthew Goss (Orica GreenEdge) and Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) rounded out the stage three podium.

Alexey Tsatevich, who crashed yesterday inside the final km, was able to ride today’s stage with no problems, finishing at 27th place.

"Of course the injures I got yesterday still hurt, but in general it was a good and quiet stage. I hope to come back to top condition for the next stages to fight for a high result," he explained.

A breakaway group of three stayed away for most of the race with the final catch coming at 2 km to go on the curves of the motor track. Using the entire width of the smooth racing surface, sprint trains readied to launch their fast men for the final sprint with Degenkolb the best of the bunch on day three.

Katusha Team, the winner of the team’s classification of Paris – Nice in 2013, is again leading the team’s classification with 5 seconds over the second team in the classification, AG2R-La Mondiale.

Stage 4 on Wednesday takes the peloton further south as “The Race to the Sun” reaches the halfway point. Departing Nevers and ending in Belleville after 201.5 km, the course features four categorized climbs along the way.

You can read our preview of today's stage here and follow our live coverage at 14.25 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.