Julie van de Velde (Phoenix-Desseuninck) made a splash on stage 3 of the Tour de France with an attack with around 60km to go. She won the final two mountain sprints and took over the polka-dot jersey from Jara Castellaine.

However, the peloton opened up a gap of more than two and a half minutes, almost allowing Van de Velde to take the stage win, but he was caught up on the Montignac-Lascaux finish straight.

Van de Velde lost heart in the last 300 meters and European champion Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Works) eventually won, but the 30-year-old Belgian tried to make the most of the situation.

"The plan was to take the points for the polka dot jersey and leave it for the team. The goal was not to finish with a full gasp on my own," Van de Velde said.

"But now that we've come that far, we can't turn back. I figured as long as the team was in front, it would be good for the sponsors. I could have waited for the peloton, but I could have stayed a little bit ahead and seen when they would come. That was the last 300 meters."

She spent most of the last 59km of the 147.2km stage in a breakaway group. She missed winning the famed stage of the Tour de France, finishing 37th.

The Tour stage win was the first for the first-year WorldTour rider, but she was pleased with her performance, which secured her the mountains jersey and the combativeness prize.

"Of course I'm a little disappointed, but I'm really proud to have come so close, and I'm also proud to have taken the [QOM] jersey and to have shown myself off. The team did a great job keeping the pace down in the pack and did a great job," said the Belgian, who thanked his teammates.

And the new mountain jersey wearer promised to attack again on stage 7 at the latest. Saturday's stage will be the most important stage of the competition, the queen stage with the Col d'Aspin (12km, 6.5%) and Col du Tourmalet (17km, 7.3%) climbs.

"I like the Col de l'Aspin and Col du Tourmalet mountain stages the best. It is marked in red in my mind. I want to have a good run there too," Van de Velde added.