Belgian Merlier wins crash-marred Tour de France stage

Dunkirk: Belgian Tim Merlier pipped Italian Jonathan Milan right at the line to win stage three of the Tour de France at Dunkirk on Monday, as Mathieu van der Poel retained the race lead.

The stage was marred by a series of falls, but the two favourites for the title Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard finished safely in the main pack and remain in second and third place overall behind Van der Poel.

The flat 179km run from Valenciennes along the Belgian border was marked above all by a nasty fall that caused Jasper Philipsen to quit with severe grazing and a suspected fracture. 

There were three more falls, including two nasty looking ones in the finale with Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel involved.

Another Belgian national champion Tim Wellens gave cross-border fans more to cheer about as he won the day's only climb, the 2.3km ascent of Mont Cassel at 31km from the finish line.

The 34-year-old will now hold the king of the mountains polka dot jersey overnight.

Regional police said one million spectators had lined the roadsides on the opening day, while rain dissuaded that kind of turnout for stage two, huge crowds turned out again for the run to Dunkirk.

The eleven bikes stolen from outside the Cofidis team hotel early Sunday were all found before the stage's end -- five of them were recovered abandoned in a forest early Monday with the others being tracked down by the police later in the day.

Tuesday's fourth stage is a 174km run from Amiens, as the Tour leaves the North region, to Rouen in Normandy, with five hills in the final 25km designed to spark a series of race-splitting attacks.

The first section of the Tour is raced through the north and west of France. 

The volcanic landscape of the Puy de Dome presents the first mountains as late as stage 10, with two more colossal climb days in the Pyrenees before the blockbuster final week in the Alps.