Pontivy is actually just a fifteen minutes drive away from Mûr-de-Bretagne where Mathieu van der Poel took his first Maillot Jaune in the name of his grand-father Raymond Poulidor but stage 3 is very different from the first two of the 108th Tour de France. It’s a long visit of the Morbihan department soon to be headed by the president of the Union Cycliste Internationale David Lappartient, starting from Lorient, the town of the Jean-Yves Le Drian French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs. It’s a land of politicians who love cycling. The course makes a little detour through Radenac, the village of Jean Robic who won the 1947 Tour de France. Moreover, it’s the first stage that definitely suits the sprinters. Caleb Ewan, Arnaud Démare, Mark Cavendish, Tim Merlier, Jasper Philipsen, Wout van Aert, Peter Sagan, Mads Pedersen, André Greipel, Nacer Bouhanni and Bryan Coquard have ambitions to win in Pontivy where a technical run-in awaits them.
