Paul Lapeira (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) launched out of the field mid-way up the punchy climb to the finish line to secure the stage 3 victory at the Tour du Limousin-P\u00e9rigord-Nouvelle Aquitaine.<\/p>\n
The peloton had caught the remnants of the day-long breakaway with one kilometre to go, just as the roads pitched upwards to the finish line in Masseret.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Lapeira attacked first and was strong enough to hold off runner-up and overall leader Ewen Costiou (Ark\u00e9a-B&B Hotels) and third-placed Alexandre Delettre (Team TotalEnergies).<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n Costiou leads the overall classification into the final stage 4 on Friday.<\/p>\n The third stage of the Tour du Limousin-P\u00e9rigord-Nouvelle Aquitaine was a 182.7km race from Saint-Jal to Masseret with four categorised climbs mid-race.<\/p>\n A breakaway of nine set off that included Victor Lafay (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Jonathan Lastra (Cofidis), R\u00e9my Rochas (Groupama-FDJ), C\u00e9sar P\u00e9rez (Equipo Finisher-Kern Pharma), Thomas Gachignard (Team TotalEnergies), Quentin Bezza and Henri-Fran\u00e7ois Renard-Haquin (both Wagner Bazin WB), and K\u00e9vin Avoine and mountains classification leader Kenny Molly (both Van Rysel Roubaix).<\/p>\n Although they pushed their lead out to more than three minutes, it was eventually reduced to 2:30 in the final 50km of the race with Ark\u00e9a-B&B Hotels leading the field to protect their overall leader, Costiou.<\/p>\n The breakaway split in the closing kilometres with LaFay, Bezza and Renard-Haquin pushing ahead just 30 seconds ahead of the field.<\/p>\n After doing much of the work in the breakaway for his teammates, Renard-Haquin was distanced with 5km to go, and LaFay and Bezza only held on for a few seconds before being swallowed up by the field in the last kilometre, just as the peloton hit the climb to the finish.<\/p>\n