Tour de France 2018: Stage 3 time, TV schedule, and live stream info

The first intentionally decisive day of the 2018 Tour de France comes Monday with a 35.5-kilometer Stage 3 time trial.

I say intentionally because Stage 1 wound up altering the general classification competition much more than anyone anticipated. Chris Froome, Richie Porte, and Adam Yates all lost 51 seconds with late crashes on a flat stage. Nairo Quintana lost one minute and 15 seconds. All of those riders are hoping to make up lost ground in a big way, and the opportunity is there.

Stage 3 will be shown live on NBCSN and streaming through the NBC Sports app and NBC Sports Gold beginning at 9 a.m. ET.

Monday’s stage is relatively long for a team time trial, and rather undulating, which could lead to significant time gaps. Froome and Team Sky, winners of the team time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné last month, will be the favorites, followed by Porte and BMC Racing. Both riders should make up for lost time.

As for everyone else, well, Monday will be a free-for-all, and for some yellow jersey hopefuls, it could effectively be the end of their chances. Yates’ Mitchelton-Scott team is reeling after time trial specialist Luke Durbridge took a nasty fall Sunday. For Quintana, no one is quite sure how much Movistar’s mishmash lineup will help him.

Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), and others who have avoided carnage thus far and could bolster their chances, themselves. Which is all to say, Monday is going to be importantTV.

Oh, and there will be death pulls:

The best part of team time trials is the death pull. Each team has eight riders, but the team’s time is recorded after the fifth rider has crossed the line. That means that late in the course, three riders can take turns sacrificing themselves by riding to the front of the train and pedaling as hard as their massive hearts can stand while their teammates save their energy by drafting behind them. The death pullers then peel off the front at the moment when their legs might actually explode.

Here’s how to watch:

TV schedule: NBCSN, beginning at 9 a.m. ET

Streaming: NBC Sports app (free, with commercials) and NBC Sports Gold (paid, no commercials) beginning at 9 a.m. ET

Image courtesy of the Tour’s official site.