Tour de France 2024: stage three from Piacenza to Turin – live

3.12pm BST

50km to go: Grellier is doing his best for his team, as they climb over the last hill of the day, at Sommariva Perno, and he’s pulling the peloton along with him. Lots of noise on the streets; it’s all been rather stately so far.

3.01pm BST

55km to go: Grellier is up to 45 seconds clear. This is his first Tour since 2020 when he wore the polka dot jersey after the first day. The word is it’s going to be windy at the finish in Turin.

2.52pm BST

60 km to go: An attack? Fabien Grellier, a Frenchman has used a descent to have a dig. He’s opened a gap of 30 seconds, and that might put some speed into the peloton, with six or seven clicks to the next climb.

2.49pm BST

65km to go: Here’s the King of the Mountains standing , an embryonic table if you will.

• 1. Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) - 24 points

• 2. Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) - 11

• 3. Frank van den Broek (dsm-firmenich PostNL) - 9

• 4. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) - 8

• 5. Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich PostNL) - 3

• 6. Cristian Rodriguez (Arkea-B&B Hotels) - 3

• 7. Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) - 2

• 8. Hugo Houle (Israel-Premier Tech) - 1

• 9. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Victorious) - 1

• 10. Matteo Sobrero (Bora-Hansgrohe) - 1

Updated at 2.52pm BST

2.40pm BST

74.5km to go: Matteo Sobrero of Team Bora takes the points from the bunch in the climb at Barbaresco, it’s a category four climb. Jonas Abrahamsen denied the single point on offer.

Just look at the terrain they are climbing through.

2.31pm BST

80km to go: Paul Griffin gets in touch: “So good to be reminded of Will Fotheringham’s magisterial Fausto book (although I can’t get the link to work). The poverty of his childhood, the racing years, but most of all the chapters about his trial for adultery with the woman in white are a wonderful read. (Lazy bias so-called journalism etc etc etc for not mentioning this). It’s easily one of the great books about bike racing, on the second tier of the podium behind Tim Krabbe’s The Racer. His best line: “I see non-racers by the side of the road. The emptiness of their lives shocks me.” Camus meets Cavendish.”

Try this link.

With a couple of hilly bits, and the threat of wind and storms the field has tightened up after the free jazz of the early bit of the day. It’s a long lead-in to Turin.

2.17pm BST

88km to go: Ah, this was the plan. Mark Cavendish is having his bike changed – both wheels – and then loaded with gels, Mark Renshaw to the fore, and now he’s being ridden back to the front by an Astana teammate. He’s also asking for the car to take up some aerodynamics by being in front of them, thus preserving energy. He’s fully loaded up for this one, so much prep going into this plan.

Updated at 2.20pm BST

2.07pm BST

95km to go: Bill Preston gets in touch: “These long flats stages can sometimes trip up GC contenders. Especially with wind and rain in the mix. Even a small error, like going the long longer way around a roundabout, can ruin a rider’s hopes (this did for Pinot and FDJ a couple of years back, however it did free him up to have some thrilling heroic rides as he was no longer marked as a threat).

“Equally nervous must be Cavendish’s team. The responsibility of organising, and then executing the correct time and place to get a stomp on for him. It could be one of those days where everything goes fine and the GC riders get a quiet one, Cav has to wait, and we’ll do it all again in the week. However, the sprint is going to be beillo, either way.”

Updated at 2.09pm BST

1.58pm BST

100km to go: The pace has idled yet more after the taking on of bidons. Astana’s Mark Renshaw seem to be deliberating over something. “Changing the front wheel,” he says. Code word? Who knows. Guess we’ll soon find out.

Gary Naylor gets in touch: “One of many delights of Grand Tours is the explicit manifestation of cooperative behavioural norms. As in life, riders come together to act in their best collective interest, providing a background against which team and individual competition takes place. Those norms are not written down, nobody is in charge of their enforcement but they are accepted. They exemplify the opposite of relationships characterised by the transactional, by the exploitation of decency, by the sneer at the naivety of the Little People. Your competitors are also your comrades.”

1.37pm BST

115km to go: Still no sign of a breakaway.

Updated at 1.51pm BST

1.33pm BST

130 km to go: Sam Bennett is among those who fancies the sprint but drops back in the sprint and it’s Mads Pedersen, with a smooth ride who takes the mountain points. Few big contenders didn’t seem to fancy that.

Here;‘s the overal standings.

• 1. Jonas Abrahamsen - 76

• 2. Kevin Vauquelin - 60

• 3. Mads Pedersen - 41

• 10. Wout van Aert - 22

Updated at 1.37pm BST

12.59pm BST

140km to go: Still not much movement. The sprint comes up soon enough. Abrahamsen’s green jersey tenure will soon be at its end.

12.32pm BST

160km to go: A reminder of today’s easy stage. Jen Voight, on the Eurosport bike, says it’s the easiest beginning of any stage he can remember for the last 20 years. The intermediate sprint will come 94km or so into the stage. They’re currently on a road named after Coppi, for a climb of 1.1km, and all the teams are in formation. They’re in Tortona, final resting place of Coppi. Jonas Abrahamsen goes over the top to claim the mountain points; he leads that category as well as the green jersey points.

12.18pm BST

165km to go: The word is the peloton is slower than expected, no breakaways. The fear now is that the rain comes and the teams are requesting the fans are not allowed too close to what are likely to be greasy roads.

Updated at 12.39pm BST

11.46am BST

190km to go: Not much happening, all together at the front, plenty of mugging for the camera by the riders, who are smashing along nicely. Up ahead, beckons the home town of Fausto Coppi, Italy’s finest ever cyclist. Learn about him here. Quite the life. He won Le Tour in 1949 and 1952.

Related: Five things we learnt about ... Fausto Coppi

11.25am BST

200km to go: The word is that storms may crash the party at 2pm. The Italian region has been swamped by them of late. The peloton at the moment is the very opposite of stormy. No breakaway.

11.19am BST

205 km to go: “I’m a bit tired,” says Mark Cavendish, chatting to Discovery. His Astana team radio, Mark Renshaw, his former leadout man, is telling the team that nobody seems to fancy breaking away. “It’s a 700m run to the line,” says Cav. “It’s good to get the leadout done by then.” A lot of faith is being placed in Michael Mørkøv, his leadout, similarly 39 years old, and a leadout man of real distinction.

11.15am BST

220km to go: Thus far, it’s been an intriging tactical battle. No breakawaus on the flat.

10.40am BST

The départ

230km to go: Christian Prudhomme delays the start by waving his arms around, as a few riders have been slow in getting ready, and off we go from Piacenza. Nobody seems willing to take on an early break.

10.30am BST

Jeremy Whittle’s report from Sunday, a great race into Bologna.

Related: Tour de France: Vauquelin wins stage two as Tadej Pogacar takes yellow jersey

10.28am BST

We’re under 5km from the départ réel , as they idle through the streets of Piacenza. Turin, an underrated city, awaits.

10.22am BST

Preamble

Could this be the one for Cav? This is the one – the first one, at least - that’s been been highlighted as the stage where he can surpass Eddy Merckx and go to 35 wins on Le Tour. Hopefully, the great man is not too gassed after two hard days in the saddle. The race is being led by Tadej Pogacar, whose team are likely to lock down the peloton, and that means there will be an opportunity for the sprinters. Enter Mark Cavendish, entering history?

Here’s William Fotheringham’s stage preview:

After Gino Bartali on Saturday, Pantani on Sunday, if it’s Monday it must be a stage that tips its hat to Fausto Coppi, passing through Tortona, home town of the campionissimo . As far as the action goes, today things should settle down – briefly – with a relatively innocuous, if lengthy, sprint stage, offering a first chance to assess the form of the fastmen, and a first opportunity for Mark Cavendish to tilt for that record-breaking stage win.