The third stage of the Tour de France usually is one of the opening stages and crashes and accidents are the norm. Energy and nerves are high across the peloton.
Stage 3 and all the stages of the first week normally will not decide the Final Winner of the Tour de France, however it can start highlighting some of the favorites.
Stage 3 of Tour de France 2022 will be the third and last stage taking place in Denmark this year. It will be a 182 km (113 miles) flat stage between Vejle to Sønderborg.
Statistics and data of Tour de France Stage 3
Tour de France Stage 3 Average Distance
To calculate the average distance of the Stage 3 of the TdF there is some extra information to be provided.
- 13 times Stage 3 was a Team Time Trial
- 1 times Stage 3 was an Individual Time Trial
- 6 times Stage 3 was divided in two splits 3a and 3b (in all the split stages, one of the splits was a Team Time Trial)
The average distance in kilometers of the Stage 3, has been 214.06 kms (133.04 miles)
Otherwise, if we do not consider the Time Trials, as normally those stages are shorter, then stage 3 average distance increases to 235.2 km (146.2 miles)
If we analyze the details of Stage 3 2022 edition of “Le Tour” we observe the amount of kilometers is lower than average, only 199 km (124 miles). This is a trend that we will observe for most stages as the average distance of Tour de France stages has decreased in recent years.
Tour de France Stage 3 Evolution of kilometers
As we can see in the graph below the amount of kilometers has decreased since the first editions of the Tour; however the amount of stages above 200 kms is quite high compared with other stages.
The downtrend is quite common for most stages (not only the third stage). The amount of kilometers has decreased in the recent times of professional cycling.
- Longest 3rd Stage: 433 km (269 miles). 1926 edition
- Shortest 3rd Stage: 35.5 km (22 miles). 2018 edition
On the graph, the years with a two split stage both splits have been added together.
Tour de France Stage 3 types of stage
The third stage of the 2022 Tour de France will be a flat stage between Vejle and Sønderborg.
A Flat stage, 83 times, is the most common type of stage on the third round of the fight for the yellow jersey followed by Medium Mountain Stages (14 times).
TdF Stage 3 Locations
The top 4 cities that have hosted the start of a third stage of the Tour de France are:
- Cherbourg – 11 times
- Metz – 7 times
- Charleville – 5 times
- Roubaix – 4
There is a clear winner as the location hosting the finish line of the third stage of Tour de France:.
- Brest – 12 times
The other top cities on the list of stage 3 host finish line are:
- Belfort – 6 times
- Rouen – 5 times
- Nantes – 5 times
- Metz – 5 times
- Roubaix – 4 times
Tour de France Stage 3 winners
Winning the third stage of the Tour de France is a sprinter thing, based on the data.
There are 10 cyclists that have repeated a victory at the Stage 3 of TdF with François Faber (LUX) and Erik Zabel (GER) in the lead with 3 victories.
The remaining cyclists with at least two victories in the third stage of Le Tour are:
- Tom Steels (BEL)
- Peter Sagan (SVK)
- Mark Cavendish (GBR)
- Marino Basso (ITA)
- Hippolyte Aucouturier (FRA)
- Henri Pélissier (FRA)
- Freddy Maertens (BEL)
- Emile Georget (FRA)
Learn more about the Tour de France Stage 1, Tour de France Stage 2 and Stage 4 of Tour de France.
Stage 3 Tour de France anecdotes and important days
This section of the page will be a live document where I will be adding information that I gather through the time or that I receive in the comments.