Tour of Britain Men: Olav Kooij turns the tables on Tim Merlier to win stage 3

Olav Kooij (Decathlon CMA CGM) sprinted to victory on stage 3 of the Tour of Britain Men, overcoming rival Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) in the final metres to take his first victory in this edition of the race.

Merlier settled for second in Beverly in what ended up feeling like a two-man sprint, with the two head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Axel Källberg (Lucky Sport Cycling Team) took third.

Tarteletto-Isorex’s Yorben Lauryssen went on a big solo attack 48km from the finish, but just fell short of a spectacular surprise win when he was caught with 6.5km to go by the surging sprint trains.

It was a messy final kilometre with teams battling to get organised, and Soudal-QuickStep looked to have the best lead-out, but Kooij managed to come from a boxed-in position to speed around the Belgian and claim the win.

Race leader and stage 1 winner Lewis Askey (NSN) finished safely in the bunch in 17th to retain the leader’s jersey for another day, but there may be some frustration in the NSN camp, as Ethan Vernon was on the receiving end of quite a cut-off from Merlier in the sprint, and had to settle for seventh.

Stage 3 from Hull to Beverley was another sprint-friendly day with a finish on circuits, though there were three small climbs to deal with along the way: Burton Road, Tire Ewe Hill and Keepers Hill.

A six-rider break got away early in the stage, made up of King of the Mountains Michael Schuran (Team United Shipping), Dylan Vandenstorme (Flanders-Baloise), Karl Hall (Hucare Factory Team), Victor Johannsen (BHS-PL Beton Bornholm) and the Tarteletto-Isorex duo of Arne Santy and Gianni Marchand.

They were allowed to build a two-minute gap and have their day out, but the sprint teams were keeping them close enough to catch. They stayed away over the first two climbs, where Schuran extended his KOM lead, but were caught by the peloton over the final climb.

The attacks resumed quickly after that, though, with Lauryssen setting off and building a two-minute gap, with Conn McDunphy (APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery) chasing behind him.

Lauryssen put in an impressive ride to maintain a 1:30 gap into the final 20km, but he had the full force of the peloton and sprinters chasing behind him. He fought valiantly on the final laps, but was swept up with 6.5km to go as the sprint teams ramped up to speed.

It was UAE Team Emirates-XRG who took up the pacing as the catch was made, trying to split things up in the wind since they don't have a pure sprinter in this race, but they couldn't make the difference they were hoping for, and the stage culminated in the expected bunch sprint.

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