Paris, July 9 -- Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) won a chaotic Stage 3 sprint at the Tour de France as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) crashed out in the green jersey. Stage 1's winner, Philipsen, was the principal victim of a high-speed incident ahead of the intermediate sprint at Isbergues. That forced his team to turn to their Plan B, Kaden Groves, but the Australian was caught on the wrong side of a late crash and could only finish seventh. Merlier kept free of trouble and positioned himself well to pip Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) to the line.

It all came at the end of what had been, for most of its duration, the sleepiest stage so far. So strong was the consensus that the day should culminate in a bunch sprint that there was no...