Hello there and welcome along to our live coverage of stage 3 of the 2023 Tour de Suisse. We've had a time trial, we've had a sprint, and ಌnow it's time for the mountains. 

We have three ꩲsuccessive days in the mountains and it starts with this 143.8km stage from Tafers to our summit finish at Villars-sur-Ollon.&nbs🍬p;

With the best part of 100km on the flat, and with the penultimate climb of Col des Mosses being relatively benign, it's not the toughest of stages overall, b🅺ut the final climb measures 9.6km at an average gradient of almost 8%. It's an important test for the general classification contenders.

The riders have all signed on foಌr the stage and will be rolling out in a few minutes' tཧime. 

Before we get going, now's the time to catch up on yesterday's action. Report, sta🧸ndings, and photos from stage 2 in the🎀 link below. 

Tour de Suisse: Girmay grabs stage 2 sprint victory ahead of Démare, Van Aert

The r༺iders are ro♐lling and we have a short neutral zone today so they should be racing in a few minutes.

Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) is in the leader's yellow jersey after winning the st♎age 1 time trial and finishing safely in the peꦯloton yesterday. He's likely to lose it today, though.

We're off

The race has been waved underway and the first attacks for the breakawaജy are coming.

Alexander Kamp (Tudor) goes clear and is joined by threℱe more riders. This looks like it's going clear.

Lilian Calmejane (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), Paul Ourselin (TotalEnergies), and Nickolas Zukowsky (Q36.5) are the other members of this breaka🧸way attempt.

This four-man group has bee🦩n le🍸t go by the peloton. The gap rises to 90 seconds after 10km of racing.

Kung's🐈 Groupama-FDJ teammates take the front of the peloton as th🥃e gap reaches 2:30.

125km to go

The gap reaches 3:30.

The gap stabilises at 3:30. It looks🐷 like a pretty quiet 𒐪day until the wind-up on the Col des Mosses and then the tough final climb. 

Remco Evenepoel is in the white jersey as best you🀅ng rider, second overall after the stage 1 time trial and the favourite to take yellow today - and perhaps at the🍬 end of the week. 

Next to him is his fellow Belgia🎃n Wout van Aert, in the black jersey as leader of the points class💖ification, having placed 3rd on both stages so far.

42.2km covered in the first hour.

Before the race really lights up today, here's our race preview looki𓄧ng at the key storylines of the week. Featuring Remco Evenepoel, Wout van Aert, Tom Pidcock, Peter Sagan, Juan Ayuso and more.

Preview: Five questions for the 2023 Tour de Suisse

Here's our breakaway. That's Zukowsky on the front in the red jersey as leader of🌠 the mountains classification, after his efforts in yesterday's breakaway.

85km to go

Change in the peloton

Soudal-QuickStep take ove𝄹r from FDJ. The Belgian team are clearly confident in Remco Evenepoel today.

The gap came down to 2:30 but has now nudged back out tꦫowards the three-minute mark.

The race leader, Stefan Kung, has just been confirmed in Groupama-FDJ's Tour de France squad. With speculatio♛n swirling over Thibaut Pinot and Arnaud Demare, the French team have had to move into putting out an early and incomplete announcement, naming five of their eight riders for the Tour.&nbs🧸p;

The headline news: Pinot in, Demare out (and soon out of the team). 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Full story here. 

68km to go

75km ridden and the road now starts to drag uphill, all the way up to the Col des Mosses. The climb it🤡self doesn't begin for more than 25km but it's a false flat then a kick up to an intermediate sprint before it does.

The gap is pretty stable, at 2:45. 

Jumbo-Visma are making their presence felt towards the front of the bunch. They have Wilco Kelderman as theirꦡ top climber here and it'll be interesting to see how he copes, having been drafted into the Tour squad despite an injury-disrupted and race-light season so far. 

On the other ಞhand, there'll be plenty of interest in Belgium as to what Wout van Aert can do. We've seen him excel in the mountains of the Tour, and if he's prepared in the same way, he could certainly look at a good GC result given the two time trials on this route. In fact, he's already 46 seconds up on Kelderman overall, with a similar buffer over a number of pure climbers.

50km to go

Into the final 50 and we're now heading up the kicker towards the intermediate spr🐻int - or should I say, sprints. This year we have the 'Tissot kilometre', which is effectively two sprints a kilometre apart. Both carry bonus seconds of 3-2-1 for the first three over the line, so they are there🌠 to tempt out the GC riders, but on this occasion they'll all be snaffled up by the breakaway.

The gap comes dow🌠n to 90 seconds as QuickStep set a brisk pace behind.

The rain is coming down hard now.

The four leaders are coming towards the first🍬 spri෴nt of the Tissot Kilometre. 

And there is no sprint. Calmejane gets to the line first but merely by dint of doing his turn at🏅 that time.

The peloton com🥀e through that first sprint 1:15 in arrears. No bonus seconds remaining so💦 no contest there, either.

Here comes the second sprint....

Kamp takes ♋it! But🐎 again, no actual sprint, no interest. The Tissot Kilometre somewhat redundant today.

40km to go

Onto the more serious matters and the Col des Mosses starts straight after that Tissot Kilometre. It's 6.2km at 4.9%🅘. That includes a little dip downhill and a plateau, but even so, it's not really worthy of it's category-1 billing, and shouldn't do too much damage ahead of our final climb.

T🌳he descent between the𓆏 two, however, has become more of a factor with this wet weather, which has soaked the roads already.

Here's Kasper Asgreen on the front for QuickS🃏tep. 

Injection of pace in the bunch as Jayco-AlUla move up. UAE and DSM are prominent as well, and now Kunဣg gets moved towards the very front. 

Some riders are getting dropped, including sprinters like Arnaud Demare, but we're going to get a pretty full bun𝄹ch going over the top of this.

The four leaders dig in as they hit the upper slopes of this climb. They're losing ground - 45 seconds now - and they'll𝐆 want to just hang on now to fig๊ht for the KOM points.

Into the final kilometre of the cliꦯmb and it's down to 3𝔍0 seconds.

They're go🦹ing to hang on. Zukowsky on the front as they head into the final 300 metไres.

Calmejane launches!

And takes it by a huge distance. 12 po♐😼ints to the Frenchman.

ꦅZukowsky trails in second place, defending his red jersey, but he has ✤a competitor now. 

Extra layers in the bunch for this descent, which is a long one at🎶 20km. 

The peloton crest the climb just 15 seconds down.

28km to go

All together

The breakaway is caught on the descent.

This is ♕far from the steepest of descents but it's still a dangerous one on these sodden roads, with s🅷o much water being sprayed up by tires.

Trek-Segafredo hit the front of the bunch.

The peloton is splitting on the descent.

Evenepoel is in the front split being driven by Trek. A couple of smaller groups are🐻 a little further back.

The bunch is starting to stitc🌟h itself back together. 

18km to go

We're heading towards th💖e bottom of this descent. We'll have a few kilometres in the valley in Aigle - home of the UCI - before we start our final climb.

16km to go

The descent is done, ending with a bunny hop over a potentially treacher🍬ous set of tram tracks. A few stragglers but the pe﷽loton is pretty much as one.

DS𓆉M take it up in the valley. They're here for Roma⛄in Bardet, who lost 34 seconds to Evenepoel in the opening time trial.

Trek-Segafredo and UAE are also prominent. Trek are here for Mattias Skjelmose, while UAE are le🉐d by the Spanish sensation Juan Ayuso, with Jay Vine also here.

10km to go

Intermedia🏅te sprint now before the climb and Van Aert a♍ccelerates!

Van Aert t💮akes a gap through the sprint and onto the climb. The bunch comes back to him but he continues his effort on the front. 

The climb๊ has begun. It's the road up to Villars-sur-Ollon and it 🌄measures 9.7km at 7.8%.

Van Aert dr🍌ifts back now, as QuickStep take it up once more.

It's Mattia Cattaneo on the front for QuickStep, Evenepoel just behind. He does get more assistance no🐟w as James Knox moves up.

Van Aert is🔯 dropped. That answers the GC question.

7.8km to go

Cattaneo pulls off and hands over to Knox. 

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) - t꧑op 10 in the past two editions of the Tour de France - is dropped. 

Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) is another rider dropped. It's still a si🐠zeable bunch but some big n🦩ames struggling.

Bora ha൲ve youngster C🏅ian Uijtdebroeks, who's been quietly impressive this season, as another GC card.

Ineos have Magnus Sheffield fourth overall, and he has GC potential, but there's also Tom Pidcock, and we should get a glim𒆙pse of how he🥂's going - and perhaps of his ambitions - ahead of the Tour de France.

7km to go

Knox continues his effort for Evenepoel.

Kung is still here but is now towards the back.

Knox looks around. I'm not sure how much he has left. Evenepoel looks like a cꦚoiled spring behind.

Evenepoel attacks! 6.4km from the summit.

Skjelmose nips over to Evenepoel.

Felix Gall (AG2R♔) gets over to them and they're aw♓ay as a trio.

Kung is dropped as the bunch explodes. He waves to the camera. The yellow jers🦂ey will indeed change hands today.&nbs💎p;

Evenepoel drജives this on, Skjelmose and Gall in the whee🤡l.

Sheffield is dropped, ma🐷king the Ineos hierarchy clearer. Dropped with him are Rui Costa and Max Schachmann. 

Kelderman and Bardet at the head of a much reduced bunch of ar🌟ound 20 riders.

10 seconds is the gap between t♔he Evenepoel trio and that group.

5km to go

5km to go and this is a gentl🔯er section before some steeper stuff nearer the top. Evenepoe🃏l is not getting any assistance up front.

Skjelmose i꧙s just 14 seconds down on Evenepoel in GC, having placed sixth in the opening TT. Gal⭕l is a further minute back.

Pello Bilbao accelerates from the chase group.

4km to go

Bilbao is comi🔜ng across as the chase group splits.

Kelderman, Uran, Ayuso in a small group coming back 🌠to Bilbao.

Evenepoel continues to 🍷tow Skjelmose and Gall, with the gap only around 10 seconds still. 

Uijtdebroekꦺs and Harold Tejada are also in the chase group that is now back with Bilbao.

3km to go

Leaders - Evenepoel, Skjelmose, Gall

Chase group at 10 seconds - Bilbao, Kelderm🔥an, Uran, A🐬yuso, Uijtdebroeks, Tejada

Gall attacks!

💞No immediate response from Evenepoel and the Austrian climber is awa♚y.

Skjelmose remains glued 🔯to Evenepoel's wheel and they're going to be caught by the chasers.

Skjelmose attacks now!!

Evenepoel doesn't respond. Is the world✨ champion in trouble?

2km to go

💫Evenepoel is slipping back towards that chase group.&﷽nbsp;

Gall has a handful꧅ of seconds over Skjelmose. A bigger gap bꦰack to Evenepoel, who is now caught by the chasers.

Tejada has been dropped from that group. 

In 🍎there are: Evenepoel, Ayuso, Kelderman, Uran, Uijtdebroeks, Bilbao

Skjelmose is working his way acro🔯ss to Gall. He has the faster finish, too. He migℱht just be heading for yellow, too. 

Evenepoel in trouble! He nearly gets gapped by the🌃 chas🥂e group and has to sprint to get back on.

1km to go

Evenepoel is dropping!!

Ayuso has attacked from that 🌸chase group and is blitzing hi꧒s way across.

Skjelmose reaches Gall. He swings aside. No time for games, and the𒐪 Dane attacks

500m to go and Skjelmose has a gap. 

Gall comes back but it's going to be too late.&🤡nbsp;

Skjelmose gets out🥀 of the🅠 saddle and crosses the line to win the stage and take yellow.

Gall second. 

Ayuso third at 11 seconds.

Evenepoel sprints to lead home the mini chase group, having made a good fightback at the end there. Still, he concedes 21 seconds to Skjelmose and that the stage winner is the new overall lea🦋der. 

Uijtdebroe൩ks, Bilbao, Kelderman, Uran finish on the same tim𓆏e as Evenepoel.

Sheffield produces a late surge t༺o take 9th place ahead of the next group, led in by Bardet.

Stage 3 results

General Classification after stage 3

Let's hear from the winner

"I had a really big question mark about my climbing abili🐟ties. Ok, maybe this was not the hardest mountain stage but it was still a long climb and I did really good. We can put a little bit of a smaller question mark, I think.

"We hope so [defend the yellow jersey]. We're 🌼going to try out best. There are a lot of stong teams, it⭕ can be difficult but we will try our best."

Skjelmose is also asked about Evenepoel

"I💝 wasn't sure. He was going really fast. I wasn't sure, to be honest. I was a little bit more worried about Felix because when he attacked he went really fast and I wasn't sure if Remco was playing games... but yeah, I always trust myself. I just gave it everything i could."

So where does this leave the Tour de Suisse?

Well, the headline news is that Evenepoel loo🌊ks vulnerable. Even if he made a mistake and did too much too soon, it was still a shock to see him dropped, and it simply does not bode well fജor what's to come. 

Skjelmose says he has answered his climbing doubters, but it has to be saﷺid, this stage was not hard until the last climb, making it more of a ramp test that perhaps suited his more punchy style. The meatier hi⛄gh-mountain affair in two days' time is a stiffer test of endurance but the Dane has been progressing really well in the past 18 months and will have the final-day TT in his locker if he does lose time. 

Ayuso was not far off it today, and he missed the first few months of the season throu⛄gh injury, so is only getting better. 

Those three - especially given 𓃲their time trialling strengths - look like the podium finishers at this Tour de Suisse, but a lot can happen!