Ivan Garcia Cortina wins crash marred Sprint Stage 3
Cortina beat Peter Sagan as Sam Bennett and Caleb Ewan crash out
Stage 3 was another long, wet and windy stage, that came down to a bunch sprint.
Deceuninck Quickstep came to the front in finale to lead out Sam Bennett who was forced into the barriers and crashed heavily, delaying Caleb Ewan in the process.
As Cortina kicked, Sagan countered but was unable to match Cortina's speed on the line and finished second, ahead of Andrea Pasqualon.
"It’s a surprise to beat Peter Sagan, there was a bit of chaos in the end. I found my place, a bit of space to go, and I had to go full, full gas to the end and I could take the victory. It’s weather I like. I suffered in the race, but I think everyone suffered. In the end I had good legs, so I do like these conditions." Cortina said afterwards.
Tom Devriendt (Circus Wanty Gobert) established a lone breakaway of the day and built up a lead of over 6m 30. With 100 km to go his lead was slowly reduced and was caught with 28 km to go.
The bunch then accelerated into a headwind that caused chaos behind as the sprinters teams found it increasingly difficult to organize their sprint trains and bring their sprinters to the front.
Bora’s Max Schachmann finished safely in the peloton to maintain his lead heading into the stage four time trial.
Schachmann leads Nizzolo by just 13 seconds before Wednesday's 15km TT, "I showed in the past I could ride good time trials. I want to defend this beautiful jersey. I’m going to try my best. Tomorrow is the next challenge. I’m going to give my best and then there are two hilly mountain stages. They will be the big showdown."
VIDEO: 2020 Paris-Nice Stage 3 Highlights
2020 Paris-Nice Stage 3 Top 10
1 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spa) Bahrain McLaren 5:49:55
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
3 Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Circus-Wanty Gobert
4 Cees Bol (Ned) Team Sunweb
5 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Team Arkea-Samsic
6 Rudy Barbier (Fra) Israel Start-Up Nation
7 Anthony Turgis (Fra) Total Direct Energie
8 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling
9 Mads Schmidt Würtz (Den) Israel Start-Up Nation
10 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R la Mondiale
2020 Paris-Nice GC after Stage 3
1 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 13:12:01
2 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling 0:00:13
3 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:24
4 Mads Schmidt Würtz (Den) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:00:25
5 Sergio Andres Higuita Garcia (Col) EF Pro Cycling 0:00:26
6 Nils Politt (Ger) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:00:28
7 Krists Neilands (Lat) Israel Start-Up Nation 0:00:28
8 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:31
9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:31
10 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:36