The Tour de France is still four weeks away. Nevertheless, the third stage of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes was a final test for the teams in the team time trial before the start of the Tour of France on 4 July in Barcelona. A team time trial is also scheduled there at the start, but it is only 19 kilometres long. The task during the Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes challenged the teams over 28.4 kilometres around Perreux.
Alex Baudin stays in the yellow jersey
In the end, Visma | Lease a Bike won the time trial - Matteo Jorgenson was the last rider to cross the finish line in a time of 32:52.17 minutes (51.08 km/h). The Dutch team was still behind Netcompany - Ineos at the two previous intermediate measuring points, but Visma | Lease a Bike took the lead in the final section. At the finish, Netcompany - Ineos was nine seconds behind. The British team had to wait for Oscar Onley on the road due to a defect. This may well have cost them the victory.
EF Education - EasyPost secured third place with a time of 33:21.58 minutes. As a result, Alex Baudin narrowly defended his yellow jersey in the overall standings. He is now twelve seconds ahead of Kevin Vauquelin and Onley (both Netcompany - Ineos).
Time lost for Paul Seixas
Red Bull - Bora - hansgrohe had to settle for fifth place (33:33.00 minutes). Decathlon - CMA CGM followed in sixth place (33:37.77), which meant that Paul Seixas lost some time on his rivals. He is now one minute behind in the classification. UAE - Emirates - XRG also lost an unexpected amount of time in ninth place with 33:53.66 minutes.
The team time trial was held in a new mode this year. In the past, the team's time was counted after the fourth rider crossed the finish line. Now, each rider receives their own time for the overall classification and the time of the first rider to cross the finish line was decisive for the daily classification in the team time trial.
Results - 3rd stage Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes 2026:
How the 3rd stage of the Tour Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes went
Team Picnic - PostNL" was the first team to take to the track. The teams started four minutes apart. At the finish, Team Picnic - PostNL initially set the fastest time of 35:37.36 minutes, but this was beaten two teams later by the NSN Cycling Team with 35:34.01 minutes. The first clear best time of 33:46.56 minutes was finally set by Jayco-AlUla, which was to stand for a long time.
Only in the final stage did the teams Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Netcompany-Ineos and Visma | Lease a Bike get things moving in the classification. EF Education - EasyPost was the last team to take to the track with leader Alex Baudin.
At the first measuring point after eight kilometres, Team Lidl-Trek set the fastest time in 10:54.32 minutes. Shortly afterwards, Visma | Lease a Bike (10:43.86 minutes) and Netcompany-Ineos (10:40.98 minutes) were even faster at this point. The second measuring point after 15.8 kilometres showed a similar picture: with a time of 20:21.19 minutes, Netcompany - Ineos set the best time, with Visma | Lease a Bike close behind at 20:27.41 minutes. Red Bull - Bora - hansgrohe was already 28 seconds behind at this point.
Defect at Oscar Onley cost Ineos time
Initially, Lidl-Trek jumped to the top with a time of 33:24.58 minutes at the finish. Shortly afterwards, however, Netcompany - Ineos came through with Kevin Vauquelin and Oscar Onley and set a new record of 33:01.78 minutes. However, Onley suffered a defect en route and the team decided to wait for the captain.
Visma | Lease a Bike therefore made up the deficit from the intermediate measurement times with a descent and a short climb in the last section of the course and achieved the best time of 32:52.17 minutes. Matteo Jorgenson crossed the finish line as the soloist for the Dutch team.
EF Education - EasyPost put in a remarkable performance, taking third place in both the intermediate measurement times and at the finish.
