Sprinters Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) appeared to have put tensions aside after an angry moment between the pair arose during stage 2 of the Tour de France on Sunday.

A three-week Grand Tour will always contain natural ebbs and flows, and, for much of Monday’s stage between Valenciennes and Dunkirk, it looked as if the peloton had declared an unofficial rest day, with the riders happy to cruise back towards the coast after a weekend of wind, rain and intensity.

Tim Merlier edges out Jonathan Milan in photo finish, Jasper Philipsen crashes out of Tour while Evenepoel, Roglič also fall

Soudal-QuickStep's Tim Merlier sprinted to victory on a crash-affected stage 3 of the Tour de France, just beating Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in a photo finish as the pair were separated by only centimetres at the finish.

Tim Merlier won the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday after a sprint finish that resulted in a number of riders crashing saw the Belgian edge just ahead of Jonathan Milan.

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1. Tim Merlier, Belgium, Soudal Quick-Step, 4:16:55. 2. Jonathan Milan, Italy, Lidl-Trek, same time. 3. Phil Bauhaus, Germany, Bahrain Victorious, same time. 4. Soren Waerenskjold, Norway, Uno-X Mobility, same time.

Staying in the north of France, stage three is a 178km run from Valenciennes to Dunkerque, with the finish line near the Calais coast. It’s a largely flat day in the saddle but for the return of the category-four climb of Mont Cassel, so important to the Tour’s organisers that they’ve included it twice, on both stage one and three.