The first stage had already caused chaos and created time gaps in Normandy; the second, running from Le Perche to Amboise in the Loire Valley, wreaked havoc of a different kind.
A crash occurred about 35 km from the finish, just as the peloton was splitting apart due to crosswinds creating *bordures* (echelons). A good hundred meters separated the two main groups, but the number of riders involved in the crash—some of whom were forced to abandon—prompted the race jury to neutralize the race for around twenty minutes. The peloton reformed and restarted as a single group; however, given that the incident occurred during a decisive phase of the race, the times for the general classification were frozen from the ten-kilometer mark onwards.
This did not prevent a large peloton from contesting the stage victory in a mass sprint. It was an opportunity for the Lotto-Wanty Development team to make it two in a row, as Dutchman Keije Solen emulated his Belgian teammate Niels Driesen, the previous day’s winner. Driesen did, however, cede the Yellow Jersey to Norway’s Kasper Haugland based on cumulative placings, as the three attackers from the opening day—including World Champion Lorenzo Finn—remain tied on time.
Stage 3, between Vierzon (Cher) and Saint-Vallier (Saône-et-Loire), is notable for its length—a distance almost unprecedented for an U23 race, and even unusual in the modern-day Tour de France. While the mountains will, as always, play the ultimate deciding role in the Tour de l’Avenir, this flat section has certainly been far from insignificant.
