Deceuninck-QuickStep's Sam Bennett crashed with Hugo Hofstetter (Israel Startup Nation) in the last meters of the 212.5km stage to La Chatre on Tuesday, and the Paris-Nice stage 3 sprint win The Irish champion missed the sprint for the Paris-Nice stage 3. The Irish champion received four stitches for a wound on his right finger, but escaped with a broken bone.

Bennett was fined 800 Swiss francs and 40 UCI points by race officials for appearing to shoulder another rider in the final sprint.

Bennett was behind and to the right of Caleb Yuan in the last kilometer and shouldered Hofstetter. Hofstetter tried to break between Sunweb's Cees Bol and Yuan, but was blocked by the Australian. Hofstetter then made contact with the wheel and spun sharply to the right, catching the bar on Euan's rear wheel and crashing into the roadside barrier with Bennett.

Ewan managed to stay upright, but was unable to hold off Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a sprint win won by Ivan Garcia-Cortina (Bahrain McLaren).

"When I hit the barrier, I hit a metal part and lost some skin and had to get stitches, but fortunately everything else seems to be fine," Bennett said in a press release.

"Initially I was a little shocked because I was lying on the road and didn't know how serious it was, but I'm glad nothing was broken. We'll keep racing and go to the individual time trial on Wednesday. I am very happy that tomorrow is going to be a short stage.

On Twitter, Hofstetter retweeted two videos of Bennett carrying Nairo Quintana on his shoulders and then himself being carried on his shoulders, writing, "No comment! Unfortunately, one of the riders attempted to hitch a ride with 300m to go.