Merlier claims hat-trick of Tour de France stage wins
Belgian sprint star Tim Merlier trebled up at the Tour de France on Thursday as he won the 12th stage in a chaotic and crash-marred dash for the line.
The Soudal-Quick Step rider edged out Dutchman Olav Kooij and fellow Belgian Jasper Philipsen to claim his third stage win of this year's Tour, and sixth overall.
It was yet another disorganised sprint made even worse when Colombian Fernando Gaviria hit the deck, bringing down several other riders, including the stage 11 winner Soren Waerenskjold.
Alpecin Premier Tech once again tried to set up Philipsen for the victory but Merlier, as he had done twice before in this 113th edition of the Tour, found a route through the traffic and powered home to take the chequered flag.
Stage five winner Kooij was pushed into second place for the second day in a row.
Reigning champion Tadej Pogacar finished safely in the pack at the end of the 179km stage from the Magny-Cours motor racing circuit in Nevers to Chalon-sur-Saone.
He maintained his overall lead of more than three-and-a-half minutes to two-time former champion Jonas Vingegaard.
Around 25km into the stage, Baptiste Veistroffer set off on a breakaway for the third time, and for the second time completely solo.
Three riders counter-attacked and joined him after 57km but by the time he reached the final 50km, all three had dropped away.
A bunch of other counter-attacks in the final 35km saw a group of 14 go clear of an increasingly ragged peloton, but that was reeled in with 24km left.
That was a cue for numerous riders to try their luck on the rapid run-in to the finish, but no group committed sufficiently to make their effort stick.
