Tour de France 2022 LIVE - Can Quick-Step make it three from three, or will Wout van Aert win in yellow?

What a finish that was! Although Quick Step's lead-out men controlled the run-in throughout, Fabio Jakobsen was far from a team-mate's wheel and was unable to contend for stage honours.

Van Aert attacked the sprint first, off the wheel of team-mate Christophe Laporte. The yellow jersey looked to have the legs to take it to the line but an onrushing Dylan Groenwegen (BikeExchange Jayco) who few have been talking about squeezed through the gaps and drew level.

Four riders threw for the line, and it almost could have been any of them, but it was Groenewegen who took it by a tyre's width from Van Aert. Back on the top step at the Tour de France for the first time since Chalon-sur-Saône in 2019.

Would love to see another stage win for Alexander Kristoff.

If you're not near the front of the race now, you might as well not bother. GC principals will be hoping to avoid more tumbles before the 3km point, while the sprinters' bodyguards will want their captains right on their wheels. It gets very technical and wiggly in the run-in. Faster might mean safer, as it helps to string out the peloton. Quick Step are in control. We've lost a lot of riders as a result of that earlier crash.

A narrowing on cobbles between barriers caused a touch of shoulders and a squashing of riders that concertinaed from the front left toward the middle of the pack. No-one significant* seemed to go down and hopefully no real harm was done.

*To me, as a reporter of events in this race. They're all significant to someone, if only their mums.

15KM TO GO - THROWBACK SUNDAY

While the peloton ploughs onwards for the finish, here's Magnus Cort delighting crowds. Presumably as the only combative rider, he will win the red combatitivity number as well? Two trips to the podium for him in half an hour, then.

The usual suspects keep watch at the front of the race as the stage nears its final phase. Hopefully something will happen soon. The headwind is doing as much work as any riders of blunting attack ambitions.

So that's a relief. He's never struck me as one who suffers from much internal anguish, as it is. Glad to see him wearing black shorts rather than a full yellow skinsuit. Apparently that's because the organisers only issue a green one for sprint stages, saving the banana look for time trials.

52KM TO GO - MAGNUS CAUGHT

Some say he's at it again. Having gently mocked his effort earlier, the EF Education Post rider rode 130km on his own at an average of 41kph. That's quite a lot faster than your average club run.

As we enter the final phase of the race, which carries the (minor) threat of a cross-tail wind on narrow country roads, there's a bit of a fight for the front of the field. The sprinters teams also want to deter any other riders from attacking at this point. No need to give themselves more work to do.

At the front of the race are riders from Bora, Lotto, Quick Step and Bahrain Victorious. A glimpse at the back of the bunch shows six of the EF team - most of whom are bandaged up - and Neilson Powless, who has a flat back tyre. Quick wheel change and he's on his way again.

59KM TO GO - ANOTHER KOM POINT TO MAGNUS

The 1.7km, 3.4% Cote de Genner Strand might be the longest and highest climb of the Tour so far but it's barely more than a false flat. All the same, he puts on a bit of a show for the home fans, rising out of the saddle and punching the air as he crosses the line.

Rob Hatch tells us that Strand means "beach" in Danish, because we're near the beach, in the south of the county, not far from the German border. The race turns towards the East at this point, heading for the finish in Sonderborg.

He doesn't want to get cort (sorry, not sorry) before the final classified climb, the Côte de Genner Strand, which is 10km away. The gap did fall below a minute, which caused the convoy to be pulled out of the gap, but it's now back up to around eighty seconds, so he's got company again.

1 Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) 77 points
2 Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep - Alpha Vinyl) 74
3 Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education Easy Post) 42
4 Peter Sagan (Total Energies) 36
5 Mads Pedersen (Trek Segafredo) 30
6 Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) 29
7 Sven Erik Bystrom (Wanty Intermarche Gobert) 24
8 Christophe Laporte (Jumbo Visma) 23
9 Yves Lampaert (QuickStep - Alpha Vinyl) 22
10 Jérémy Lecroq (B&B Hotels - KTM) 20

Super close between the top two there. Jakobsen is currently wearing the green skinsuit on behalf of Wout van Aert, but he would own it outright with a win today.

At the head of the race, Magnus Cort Nielsen doesn't contest the sprint with Magnus Cort Nielsen, allowing Magnus Cort Nielsen to take the top twenty points available at Christiansfeld.

Two minutes later, the sprinters team make more of the fight for the remainder. Christophe Laporte leads out for Wout van Aert, as Michael Morkov tries to do the same for Fabio Jakobsen but ends up rather boxing him in. Without expending too much energy the Green jersey manages to come round him for 3rd, as Peter Sagan picks up eleven points.

Colour me surprised. MCN takes the one on offer at the Côte de Hejlsminde Strand, taking him to a total of five. I've looked ahead to Tuesday's stage from Dunkirk to Calais and count six climbs across the course, all of the same categorisation as those we've had so far. That means if Cort Neilsen can hold out long enough to take the last one on offer today, one rider would need to claim all six to nab the jersey off him. With no mountains points on offer at all on Wednesday, he should be in polka dots until at least the end of Stage 6. That's the kind of analysis you come for, eh?

We've not long passed a sign indicating that it's 10km to the intermediate sprint. A few more points on offer there than yesterday, when MCN had a buddy with him. A little bit of excitement, for a treat.

Caught up in one of the later crashes yesterday, Tadej Pogacar's luck didn't quite run out, but it's the most ill fortune he's experienced in his three Grand Tours thus far. Sounds like he took a little knock but nothing he can't handle.

That's the question of the day. No team has ever won the first three stages of the Tour de France, so it would be a remarkable accomplishment. In fact, Jakobsen's victory yesterday was the first time two out of two had been done for the first time since 1987. On that occasion Jelle Nijdam of Superconfex - Kwantum - Yoko won the 6km prologue, while his team-mate Nico Verhoeven took the first stage proper.

Magnus Cort-Nielsen's lead is down to 3:37. Maybe he stopped for a pee. (Off-camera)

125KM TO GO - CAN THE DANES SHOW THE ITALIANS HOW TO DO IT?

Not how to ride bikes - though they can probably teach them a thing or two there as well - as much as how to host a bike race. The crowds have really embraced this race, and it makes such a difference to the experience.

Now I was listening to the Cycling Podcast this morning, on which someone suggested that extra layer of material could have been worth up to about 40 seconds to the Ineos Grenadiers rider. That seems like a stretch, given he finished the stage only 25 seconds down on Yves Lampaert and said afterwards that his ride never felt like it was flowing. Still, if the gilet was worth only a third of that estimate, the "true" value of his ride will have been close to that of Vinegaard, Roglic, Pedersen and Van der Poel. My pre-Tour bet on him is feeling pretty good right now.

At a riproaring 31kph. That's probably B group pace for your average club run. With 50km to the next KOM, that'll take them about 1 hour 40 minutes. You could do some housework or you could read my article from last night, in which I simultaneously state the obvious and manage to annoy everyone.

155KM TO GO - 6:27 FOR MAGNUS CORT

And despite holding such a large lead, he's still only gone up about five places in the virtual general classification. He started the stage in 170th place, 8:39 down on Wout van Aert. No wonder the peloton having given him so much rope.

He's onto the first climb of the day, on his way to one point, and the crowds are enormous. "He must feel like the tallest man in the world right now," says Rob Hatch.

Adam Blythe. thinks he should "pop a wheelie. Do a Mexican wave."

If Magnus Cort Nielsen is barely hitting three figures, the peloton seem to be pushing about half that. The Dane is already five minutes ahead but at the speed they're going, they can probably still see him up the road.

There's definitely time before he gets to the Côte de Koldingvej to remind yourself of how yesterday unfolded.