Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie) wins stage 3 Paris Nice.

Jonathan Hivert (Direct Energie) outsprints (Team Astana) Luis León Sánchez to win Paris-Nice stage 3 while Luis León Sánchez moved into the overall race lead.

 The Frenchman, who won both stages and the overall at the Tour du Haut Var last month, comfortably outsprinted away from Sánchez and Remy di Gregorio (Delko Marseille Provence) after the trio had gone clear over the top of a late category 3 climb.
                          How it unfolded

 The clouds gathered over Bourges once more on Tuesday morning, but with a 210-kilometre trip due south – the longest stage here – the ‘Race to the Sun’ would take a big step towards its final destination. After a block headwind deterred attacks yesterday, this time it didn’t take long for a breakaway to form.

In there were Jay Thomson (Dimension Data), Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) and Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Delko Marseille Provence) and they quickly opened up a lead of seven minutes over the peloton.

 Phil Bauhaus (Sunweb) abandoned with knee pain while fellow sprinter Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) also left the race.

 Top Ten General Classification Result

1, Luis León Sanchez (Spain) Astana Pro Team 13:21:56, 
2, Arnaud Demare (France) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:28,
3, Gorka Izagirre (Spain) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:35, 
4, Julian Alaphilippe (France) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:38,
5, Mike Teunissen (Netherland) Team Sunweb 0:00:41,   6, Tim Wellens (Belgium) Lotto Soudal,
7, Roman Kreuziger (Czech) Mitchelton-Scott,  
8, Heinrich Haussler (Australia) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:43,
 9, Felix Grossschartner (Autria) Bora-Hansgrohe,
 10, Ion Izagirre (Spain) Bahrain-Merida