Belgian rider Tim Merlier has won the crash-marred third stage of the Tour de France in a photo finish and Mathieu Van der Poel has kept the yellow jersey.

Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) were expected to contest the high-speed, winner-takes-all-sprint on stage 1 of the Tour de France but were left disappointed and apologetic after they missed the decisive split and Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took the win and the first yellow jersey.

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.