At the 2025 Tour de France Merlier celebrates between falls and lack of wind

There were those who were waiting for the North Sea wind to set up the ambush. There were those who feared the North Sea wind because there were people who couldn't wait to repeat the ambush that had succeeded on the first day . There were those who didn't care much about the North Sea wind because they would have had to work hard anyway and whether it was there or not would have made no difference.

On Sunday, most meteorologists had assured that on Monday there would be a lot of air in the entire department of the North. And when that is the case, you never know how it will go up there in the North, because the winds are crazy and turn those areas into a room full of drafts.

And so the runners set off from Valenciennes towards Dunkirk, knowing that sooner or later the moment would come when the wind would make their lives difficult. And when that happens, the runners thought, it is better to be cautious, to wait for the moment of torment, trying to avoid creating unnecessary problems for themselves. They started at a slow pace, they continued at a slow pace, they waited. No one tried to escape, no one dared to challenge the wind. And then the wind, perhaps annoyed by so much waiting, decided that it was not the case to intervene, it remained a breeze, it took care not to become the protagonist.

The 178.3 kilometers of the third stage of the 2025 Tour de France, Valenciennes–Dunkerque , have turned into a country wandering good for thinking about other things. Cycling can sometimes provide days of absolute relaxation, during which the senses calm down and the race becomes just a pretext to take an interest in something else, to deepen one's knowledge of places, to discover that Valenciennes is the French city with the highest per capita consumption of Maroilles; that Maroilles is the French cheese with the oldest production regulations (the first was in 960 and was followed until 1860, the year in which it was replaced by one more in line with the times); that the Isbergues steelworks produced almost all the rails that allowed France to equip itself with a railway network between the end of the 19th century and the 1910s. Certain stages of the Tour de France are an American-style launch into learning.

It was in Isbergues, however, that the events of the race decided to take the stage again. A few hundred meters from the intermediate sprint set in the country of the rails of the France of the past, Bryan Coquard derailed, remained on the saddle in a way that defies the laws of gravity, causing Jasper Philipsen to fall onto the asphalt. The Belgian rider fell on his shoulder, slid onto his back on the road, and was forced to abandon the 2025 Tour de France after two and a half stages, one victory and a day spent in the yellow jersey.

From that moment on, with the exception of an escape by Tim Wellens to take the points of the Grand Prix of the Mountain to take the polka-dotted jersey from the shoulders of the captain Tadej Pogacar (thus saving him the dead time of the awards ceremony), it was the crashes that animated a stage that had transformed into a long wait for the final sprint.

Too many ended up on the ground. Sprinters and ranking men ended up there; guilty and innocent, cautious and incautious. Many more risked ending up there.

Tim Merlier didn't end up there, hiding in the middle of the group for a long time, even when there was no need to hide. He reappeared at the right time, a few hundred meters from the finish line, on Jonathan Milan's wheel. He overtook him with ease, and continued ahead of everyone until he reached the finish line. In Dunkirk, Tim Merlier raised his hands in victory . He was the only one certain of having won. It took the Tour judges a long time to discover that he was right, that he had indeed crossed the finish line before Jonathan Milan.

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