Tour de France 2017: Live-Stream Schedule, TV Info, Route for Monday's Stage 3

The 2017 Tour de France will finally cross into the Grand Est region via Luxembourg on Monday, giving the punchers a chance at a stage win.

Stage 3 will finish in Longwy, where the peloton will tackle the Cote des Religieuses, a short but fierce hill that should weed out the sprinters. On paper, the finish is perfectly suited for the Classics riders, while the contenders for the general classification will also be active.

Here's a look at the full route, courtesy of CyclingnewsTV:

TV Info: Eurosport, ITV 4 (UK), NBC Sports (U.S.)

Live Stream: Eurosport website, ITV app, NBC Sports Live service

Preview

La Grande Boucle has frequently included a stage like this in the first week of racing for years now, in an attempt to emulate the popularity of the one-day Classics in Belgium and Italy.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

The handful of short climbs the peloton will face aren't long enough to do any major damage in the GC, although the contenders can take some time via bonus seconds and if their rivals have a bad day.

This early in the race, it will be hard for breakaways to gain enough time over a fresh peloton and grab the win. The many contenders for Monday's stage will only complicate matters, per the Inner Ring:

Michael Matthews, Peter Sagan and Philippe Gilbert are three riders fans will keep a close eye on, especially now Alejandro Valverde has abandoned the race. The Spaniard would have been the clear favourite for Stage 3 thanks to his unique blend of climbing ability and explosive sprinting, but his 2017 Tour lasted just a few kilometres.

Per Movistar's official Twitter account, Valverde's injuries as a result of his crash in Stage 1 were serious:

World champion Sagan has taken plenty of wins in races similar to this stage, thanks to his excellent sprinting ability. The Slovak is gunning for his sixth straight green jersey and should be able to distance his main rivals on the final climb.

The top contenders for the yellow jersey will likely test each other's form on Monday, but don't expect anyone to take too many risks this early in the Tour. The Cote des Religieuses isn't long enough to cause major time differences―it isn't worth jeopardising form or health in the opening week on such a short climb.