At his first appearance at the Tour de France, Phil Bauhaus impressed on a technical sprint into Bayonne, finishing second behind Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in stage 3 yesterday.
It was the first opportunity for the sprinters as the Tour made its way from Spain to France after two challenging days in the mountains. Positioning was always going to be crucial in the final of yesterday’s stage, which organisers had already modified due to concerns about road furniture.
With 15km to go, Matej Mohorič, Nikias Arndt and Fred Wright did an excellent job of keeping Bauhaus up at the front and out of trouble. It was the last roundabout at 2.5km to go, which was the main concern, and Bauhaus remained well-placed for the sprint behind Philipsen and Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), but Philipsen pipped Bauhaus to the line by half a bike.
Despite a great result, as a sprinter, Bauhaus will be looking for more in the upcoming days: “It was super nervous, super fast 60km. The team did great, which really means a lot for me. Without them, I wouldn’t sprint like this. I mean, it’s a great result, of course, but as a sprinter, you want to win. We have a few more stages for the sprinters to go, so I still have the dream to win one stage.”
Asked about his first sprint at the Tour, Bauhaus commented: “The general pace is higher, and more people are involved, with more guys really pushing it to the limit. I’m happy everyone stayed on the bike.”
Briton Adam Yates, who won the opening stage on Saturday, retained the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
Yesterday’s ride, despite some short climbs at the beginning of the stage, was meant for the sprint specialists and American Neilson Powless and France’s Laurent Pichon, the two breakaway riders of the day, were reined in easily well before the final straight.
Briton Mark Cavendish, who is looking to break the record of 34 stage wins on the Tour he shares with Belgian great Eddy Merckx, was sixth. Cavendish is riding his last Tour de France.
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