Cavendish equals Hinault's record with narrow stage 3 win

Greipel, the German national champion from the Lotto-Soudal team, thought he had done enough to open up his own account but was denied by a late lunge by Cavendish which saw the in-form Dimension Data sprinter win the 223.5-kilometre stage from Granville in a photo finish.

It took a few tense minutes before the race jury made its decision – but Cavendish’s face said it all after it was confirmed that the man in green had beaten his old rival by the most slender of margins.

Only one rider now has more Tour stage wins to his name than Cavendish – the Belgian legend Eddy Merckx whose record of 34 victories may well yet be reached by a 31-year-old rider enjoying his best ever start to a Tour.

With two wins in three days, Cavendish is the man to beat in the 103rd edition of the Grande Boucle – and any doubts regarding his dual focus on next month’s Olympics and the Tour have been firmly put to bed.

Frenchman Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) was third in the fast finale while Slovakian world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) finished fourth to retail the leader's yellow jersey. Germany’s Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) could only finish seventh while there was a second ninth-place finish for British debutant Daniel McClay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept).

On a day in which there were no crashes or major incidents, defending champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) and his main general classification rivals all finished safely in the pack.

Sagan leads Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) by eight seconds on GC with Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) is third two seconds further back.

Break: The second longest stage on the Tour was animated from the get-go with a daring solo attack by Frenchman Armindo Fonseca (Fortuneo-Vital Concept). Riding his third Tour, the 27-year-old was motivated by the race entering his native Brittany and quickly built up a maximum lead of 11 minutes over a lethargic peloton.

Fonseca’s large lead saw him crest the summit of the only categorised climb in pole positon but his advantage soon came down to around five minutes, where it hovered for around three hours.

An average speed of just 33.7km/h over the first three hours was not merely a reflection of the rolling terrain as the race left Normandy and entered Brittany. The reality was that the peloton seemed happy to have an easy day in the collective saddle after the vigours of a dramatic opening weekend.

And seeing that Fonseca was no real threat for both GC riders or sprinters, the plucky Frenchman was allowed to have his time in the sun out on the front of the race.

Turning point: With the pace almost slowing to a trickle, Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) took matters into his own hands with an attack 88 kilometres from the finish.

Whether out of boredom, motivated by some kind of protest, or perhaps even nostalgia (Voeckler picked up his first ever yellow jersey in Angers back in 2004), the French veteran renowned for his panache made light work of Fonseca’s advantage, catching his compatriot in a matter of minutes and injecting some much-needed oomph into proceedings.

The French duo gamely combined but once the teams of the main sprinters started to lead the chase, their advantage of six minutes came tumbling down. Voeckler allowed Fonseca to win the intermediate sprint with just over 50 kilometres remaining but despite digging deep and sharing out the workload, the pair was swept up inside the final 10 kilometres.

Finale: It was Voeckler’s Direct Energie team which led the pack into the outskirts of Angers in a bid to set up their man Coquard for a maiden victory on the Tour. A scrappy finale saw one Orica-BikeExchange rider overcook a tight bend and hit the barriers before the sprint opened up.

The Dimension Data, Etixx-QuickStep and Lotto-Soudal teams of Cavendish, Kittel and Greipel were right in the thick of things going into the final kilometre before German veteran Greipel surged clear.

Greipel looked to be on course for an 11th career victory on the Tour – and even pumped his fist in celebration as he crossed the line – but Cavendish’s late rally and superior bike lunge sealed it for the Manxman.

Two wins from three puts Cavendish level with Frenchman Bernard Hinault on the all-time Tour leader board and just six victories shy of the great Eddy Merckx. Despite the narrowness of his win, Cavendish admitted afterwards that he was confident he’d done enough to deny Greipel at the death.

“I normally know when I win or I lose. When I crossed the line, I kind of knew I got it today but anything can happen,” he said. “I knew I had to come from behind. I wanted to be behind Greipel to launch my sprint. He took me by surprise but I'm happy I did it.

“My teammates were phenomenal. It's superb for Dimension Data. We came here and we made our sponsors proud.” Cavendish's win saw him move above Sagan in the green jersey points classification with 123 points to the Slovakian's 116.

A big chapeau, too, must go out to the two Frenchmen who decided to buck the trend and race on an otherwise slow and tedious stage. Fonseca did his local fans proud while Voeckler did his reputation no damage with a trademark attack from distance – securing with it the day’s combativity prize.

The big loser of the day was that man Greipel, who blamed his loss later on to an unnecessary gear change in the finale.

“I think the last six kilometres were quite messy. There were lots of corners and not much organisation. It was hard to stay with the team, stay near the front and not get boxed in,” Greipel said. “I think I just made one mistake and it was a kind of reflex to go into the biggest gear. If I had kept it in the gear I had then I think I would have made it.”

Fonseca could feel aggrieved not to be wearing the red dossard on Tuesday after Voeckler’s cameo was deemed more aggressive than his own ride off the front of the pack – which added up to almost 215 kilometres ahead of the race.

The longest stage of the race is a southeasterly schlep from Coco Chanel's birth town through the agricultural Haute-Vienne department of central France, where there's one cow to every inhabitant. Beautiful flat roads should provide an ideal springboard for an early attack – and rolling terrain over the final third could act in any break's favour.

Potential crosswinds could also cause echelons in the chasing pack ahead of the slightly uphill finish in Limoges where, in 2010, a 20-year-old Peter Sagan was denied a Paris-Nice scalp by William Bonnet, the FDJ rider who broke his neck in the dramatic crash that ended Fabian Cancellara's Tour last July.