Despite van der Poel's attacks, young Romeo wins the thrilling third stage of the Dauphiné and takes the yellow jersey

As always, there was speculation before the start of the stage about how it might unfold. Many fingers pointed to van der Poel and his team, as the stage seemed tailor-made for the Dutchman. "It's a great opportunity for Mathieu to take the yellow jersey," said Remco Evenepoel. Jonathan Milan also knew keeping the yellow jersey would be difficult for him and his team.

Van der Poel himself did not give too much away at the start in Brioude, where Romain Bardet was once again in the spotlight. "It's difficult to predict. If a strong breakaway can get away, they could also be in contention for the win. The GC teams will probably prefer to see a breakaway, so we'll see how it goes," he said.

In the stage's opening phase, the Dutchman immediately made his intentions clear. Together with French speedsters Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ) and Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R), he went on an adventure after Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Ruben Guerreiro (Movistar) had already tried a few things in the first uphill meters. At that point, it went too fast for Milan.

The green jersey wearer was caught along with the two Frenchmen, but he didn't give up and went for it again. The high pace was evident from the list of riders who were dropped, which we received from the A.S.O.: it included Guillaume Martin (Groupama-FDJ), Attila Valter (Visma | Lease a Bike), Magnus Sheffield (INEOS), and Ben Healy of EF Education-EasyPost, who aren't exactly weak climbers.

Remco Evenepoel and world champion Tadej Pogacar broke away briefly in that blistering opening phase. The Slovenian rider from UAE Emirates-XRG picked up two bonus seconds ahead of his Belgian rival, who added one. Meanwhile, thirteen riders, including Van der Poel, had pulled away at the front, while the Milan group was already more than two minutes behind the peloton.

Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Axel Laurance (INEOS Grenadiers), Maximilan Schachmann (Soudal Quick-Step), Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek), Iván Romeo (Movistar), Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Brieuc Rolland (Groupama-FDJ), Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech), Eddie Dunbar (Jayco AlUla), Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty), Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) and Harold Tejada (XDS Astana) were the twelve men who had joined van der Poel at the front. After the first hill section, the thirteen riders enjoyed a lead of about one minute over the peloton, with UAE leading the chase.

Slowly but surely, things calmed down in the peloton, allowing many riders to catch up. On the descent towards the Côte de Malataverne, Milan's group rejoined the peloton, bringing the yellow jersey back into the pack. The breakaway's lead had increased to about two and a half minutes but gradually decreased again.

Milan was dropped again, but once more, the strong Lidl-Trek rider fought back into the peloton. At the front of the pack, UAE riders Nils Politt and Domen Novak kept the breakaway within striking distance, with the two riders also receiving help from Casper Pedersen for a long time on behalf of Soudal-Quick Step. With Lipowitz in the breakaway, it was a dangerous group for the GC contenders, which meant that at one point, Attila Valter, on behalf of Visma | Lease a Bike, also did some work at the front.

With 78 kilometers to go, the leaders arrived at the top of the Col du Tracol with a little over a minute and a half. On the fourth category climb, Milan had to let the peloton go again, after which the Italian rider got help from teammates Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier and Edward Theuns. The final stretch was mainly downhill and then flat, although there was a short but challenging climb on the course just under twenty kilometers from the finish. Reason enough for Lidl-Trek to give everything to bring Milan back.

Milan returned again and joined a peloton that slowly but surely began to close the gap to the thirteen leaders. Politt led most of the kilometers, but the front group worked well together. With thirty kilometers to go, the gap was still just under a minute and a half, so it was unclear whether the peloton could catch up with the front group in time for the steep final climb...

As expected, the race exploded on the steep Côte du Château Jaune. Lipowitz, Bernard, Leknessund, and Tejada broke away at the front, with van der Poel trying to close the gap not far behind. The peloton also fell apart and was quickly thinned out, with Milan having to let go for the third time today. In the final stretch, we also saw the unlucky Maxim van Gils standing by the side of the road with a mechanical problem.

After Van der Poel impressively closed the gap to the four, most of the other early breakaway riders rejoined the peloton shortly afterward. With ten riders in the lead, we entered the final ten kilometers, with the peloton still more than a minute behind. This meant the leading group was in an excellent position to take the stage victory. Tejada and Romeo tried to get away in the final but were unsuccessful.

However, Romeo did not give up and accelerated again with just under six kilometers to go. The young Spaniard saw the other riders hesitate and immediately built up a nice lead. No one saw Romeo again, and he took the most significant victory of his career, the yellow jersey from Milan. Van der Poel eventually finished fifth, behind Tejada (second), Barré (third), and Lipowitz (fourth). The latter did well in the GC, gaining almost a minute on his closest rivals.