Stage 3 of the 2026 Lloyds Tour of Britain Men takes the peloton from Hull to Beverley today, Friday 4 September, with 194.1km of racing across the East Yorkshire coast and Yorkshire Wolds before four passages of a finishing circuit around Beverley.
The neutralised start from East Park in Hull is at 10:30 BST, with racing officially beginning at approximately 10:45 BST. UK viewers can watch almost the entire stage live and free, with ITV4 on air from 10:20 BST and the race also available through ITVX and the official Tour of Britain YouTube stream.
The scheduled finish at Beverley Racecourse is around 15:10 BST, although the official timetable gives a much wider window of approximately 14:43 to 15:36 depending on the speed of the stage.
For anyone who cannot watch from the start, 13:45 BST is a sensible time to join. The race should be approaching Beverley and the final circuits, with the three categorised climbs already completed and the sprint teams beginning to take control.
Our full Tour of Britain Men 2026 Stage 3 preview looks in more detail at the battle between Olav Kooij and Tim Merlier, the three Yorkshire Wolds climbs and why the uphill finish gives the sprinters a slightly different problem to Stage 2.
What time does Tour of Britain Stage 3 start?
The riders roll away from East Park in Hull at 10:30 BST, before the flag drops for the official racing start at approximately 10:45 BST.
The opening half heads east towards the coast through Holderness, reaching Withernsea before turning north through Hornsea, Atwick and Skipsea.
There is very little climbing during this part of the stage. The bigger concern is exposure, particularly after Stage 2 showed how quickly the race can change when wind, positioning and bad luck combine.
From Burton Agnes, the race begins to turn inland and the terrain becomes progressively more rolling. Burton Road, Tire Ewe Hill and Keepers Hill provide the day’s three categorised climbs before the riders head through Driffield, Sledmere and Wetwang towards Beverley.
Tour of Britain Stage 3 key UK times
| Stage 3 point | Approximate UK time |
|---|---|
| ITV4 live coverage begins | 10:20 BST |
| Neutralised start, East Park | 10:30 BST |
| Official race start | 10:45 BST |
| Hornsea | 11:49-12:03 BST |
| Skipsea | 12:01-12:18 BST |
| Burton Agnes | 12:15-12:35 BST |
| Driffield | 12:57-13:26 BST |
| Sledmere | 13:16-13:50 BST |
| Wetwang | 13:25-14:00 BST |
| Beverley | 13:53-14:35 BST |
| Best time to join for the finale | Around 13:45 BST |
| Expected finish | Around 15:10 BST |
| Full finish window | Approximately 14:43-15:36 BST |
| ITV4 highlights | 20:00 BST |
The wide finish window reflects the different speed calculations used in the race timetable. A quick stage across the relatively flat opening roads could put the race comfortably ahead of the central schedule, especially if a tailwind or aggressive racing keeps the average speed high.
How to watch Tour of Britain Stage 3 for free in the UK
Stage 3 is live and free on ITV4 and ITVX.
ITV4’s programme begins at 10:20 BST, ten minutes before the neutralised start and around 25 minutes before racing officially begins.
That gives viewers something close to complete live coverage rather than joining once the early breakaway has already formed.
The race is also available free through the official Tour of Britain YouTube channel, another useful option for watching on a phone, laptop, tablet or smart television.
Subscription coverage is available through TNT Sports 1 and HBO Max.
For most UK viewers, ITV4 or ITVX is the simplest option. ITV4 also has a one-hour Stage 3 highlights programme scheduled for 20:00 BST tonight.
The broader broadcast arrangements for this year’s race are similar to those explained in our guide to watching Stage 1 of the Tour of Britain Men 2026, with free live coverage remaining one of the advantages of following the national Tour.
When should you start watching Stage 3?
There is no single decisive climb or summit finish that dictates the perfect viewing time today.
Instead, the important point comes when the race begins moving out of the Yorkshire Wolds and towards Beverley.
If you want the complete stage, tune in from 10:20 BST.
If you mainly want the final hour and the fight for the stage win, 13:45 BST gives the safest balance. Under the central timetable, the riders should be closing on Beverley, while even on a fast schedule there will still be plenty of racing left.
Leaving it until 14:15 should still work if the stage runs close to its expected schedule, but it carries more risk. The fastest projection has the race finishing at approximately 14:43, so a particularly rapid day could already be well inside the Beverley finale.
Anyone interested purely in the last few kilometres should still avoid assuming a 15:10 finish. The race can arrive considerably earlier.
What will be happening around midday?
The first couple of hours should be the least selective section of the stage.
The peloton heads from Hull towards Withernsea before following the East Yorkshire coast through Hornsea and Skipsea. Hornsea is expected between approximately 11:49 and 12:03 BST, with Skipsea following between 12:01 and 12:18.
This is where the early break should be established.
Smaller teams have every reason to get riders up the road, while NSN Cycling Team do not need to spend the whole stage chasing simply because Lewis Askey holds the race lead. As long as the escape contains nobody dangerous overall, the responsibility should gradually move towards the teams interested in a sprint.
Soudal Quick-Step have Tim Merlier after his dominant victory in Skegness. Decathlon CMA CGM have Olav Kooij, who finished second there and has already won at Beverley Racecourse.
Those two teams have the clearest reason to prevent the break from building an unmanageable advantage.
The Yorkshire Wolds should make the middle of the stage more interesting
The first half is flat enough for the race to settle, but the route changes after Burton Agnes.
Three categorised climbs arrive relatively close together.
Burton Road is 3.3km at around 2.5%, barely enough to trouble professional sprinters but sufficient to begin increasing the workload.
Tire Ewe Hill is shorter and steeper at approximately 1.1km and 5.1%.
Keepers Hill, the last categorised ascent, measures around 1.6km at 4.1%.
None should drop Merlier or Kooij simply because of the gradient.
The opportunity comes from how aggressively they are raced.
A succession of attacks can force the sprint teams to chase, remove domestiques and make almost 200km of racing considerably more tiring than the profile initially suggests. Riders such as Matteo Trentin, Jasper Stuyven and Florian Vermeersch have little incentive to arrive at Beverley in a perfectly organised bunch behind two of the fastest sprinters in the world.
They need disorder.
The Wolds give them somewhere to begin creating it.
When will the riders reach Beverley?
The race is expected to reach Beverley between approximately 13:53 and 14:35 BST, with the central schedule putting the riders there at around 14:14.
That is the point where Stage 3 should become much easier to read.
The riders enter a 16km finishing circuit with four passages, repeatedly covering roads that will eventually take them to the finish at Beverley Racecourse.
For the sprint teams, that gives lead-out riders several opportunities to study the important corners and positioning points.
For attackers, it does exactly the same thing.
Stuyven, Trentin and Vermeersch know that waiting for Merlier and Kooij is unlikely to give them their best chance of winning. The circuit gives them opportunities to move before the sprint trains have completely taken over.
Lewis Askey also has an interesting decision to make. His primary job is protecting the race lead, but his Stage 1 victory on Michaelgate showed that he is perfectly capable of exploiting an uphill finish himself.
Lewis Askey still leads, but Tim Wellens is now the closest challenger
The general classification changed considerably during Stage 2 from Boston to Skegness.
Askey safely retained the green leader’s jersey, but Filippo Ganna suffered a badly timed puncture while the race was split in the wind. He eventually lost 1:43 and dropped from second to tenth overall.
That leaves Tim Wellens as Askey’s nearest rival.
Tour of Britain GC before Stage 3
| Position | Rider | Team | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Askey | NSN Cycling Team | Leader |
| 2 | Tim Wellens | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | +12s |
| 3 | Matteo Trentin | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | +19s |
| 4 | Daan Hoole | Decathlon CMA CGM | +21s |
| 5 | Jasper Stuyven | Soudal Quick-Step | +21s |
| 6 | Florian Vermeersch | UAE Team Emirates-XRG | +25s |
| 7 | Rick Pluimers | Tudor Pro Cycling Team | +33s |
| 8 | Elliot Rowe | Great Britain | +33s |
| 9 | Paul Wright | Modern Adventure Pro Cycling | +40s |
| 10 | Filippo Ganna | Netcompany INEOS | +1:53 |
That makes Stage 3 more important than a straightforward sprinters’ day.
Wellens is only 12 seconds behind. Trentin, Hoole and Stuyven are all within 21 seconds, while Vermeersch is close enough that one successful attack could change the complexion of the race.
The likely decisive GC stage still comes tomorrow between Helmsley and Leyburn, but Askey cannot afford to give away cheap seconds in Beverley.
The wider overall picture is covered in our Tour of Britain Men 2026 preview.
Tim Merlier starts as the rider everyone has to beat
Merlier’s Stage 2 victory in Skegness was emphatic.
Once the late attack from Vermeersch had been caught, Soudal Quick-Step put Merlier into position and the Belgian had comfortably enough speed to finish the job. Kooij took second, Sam Bennett third, Matteo Moschetti fourth and Ethan Vernon fifth.
Beverley gives Merlier a slightly different challenge.
The preceding terrain is harder, the finishing circuit allows more opportunities for attacks and the final drag to Beverley Racecourse rises towards the line.
None of that is enough to remove him from favouritism.
It simply makes the route less straightforward than Skegness.
If Soudal Quick-Step deliver a full bunch into the final kilometre with Merlier well positioned, everyone else faces the same problem they did on Thursday.
Olav Kooij has good memories of Beverley
Kooij has already won at Beverley Racecourse.
He took victory here during the 2023 Tour of Britain, part of his remarkable sequence of stage wins at the race, and returns with a finish that should suit him better than the flat sprint in Skegness.
The difference is not the final gradient alone.
Kooij generally benefits when a sprint stage becomes harder without becoming hard enough to drop him. Nearly 200km, three categorised climbs and repeated laps around Beverley create more accumulated fatigue than Thursday’s coastal stage.
Decathlon therefore do not necessarily need to make the afternoon quiet.
A harder race can help them, provided Kooij remains safely attached.
Ethan Vernon and Sam Bennett have another opportunity
The battle is not limited to Merlier and Kooij.
Sam Bennett finished third in Skegness, a useful reminder of the speed he still possesses when positioned properly. Pinarello Q36.5 also had Matteo Moschetti fourth, giving the team more than one rider capable of finishing near the front.
Ethan Vernon took fifth for NSN.
His team has to balance two objectives today. Askey needs protecting in the leader’s jersey, but Vernon deserves a proper chance in Beverley if the race comes down to a bunch sprint.
Those jobs can complement one another for much of the finale. Keeping Askey near the front also keeps Vernon close to the correct wheels.
Only in the final kilometres does NSN need to separate its GC protection from its sprint plan.
Why Stage 4 influences what happens today
Saturday’s Stage 4 from Helmsley to Leyburn is the obvious place for the GC favourites to take bigger risks.
It contains far more climbing than Stage 3 and gives Wellens, Ganna and the other riders trying to remove Askey from the lead a much stronger platform for sustained attacks.
That should limit the appetite for a major GC offensive today.
Wellens does not need UAE Team Emirates-XRG to spend the entire afternoon trying to isolate Askey on short climbs when much more selective terrain arrives tomorrow.
The interesting riders are those who can gain something without committing to a full GC attack.
Trentin, Stuyven and Vermeersch are all close enough overall to benefit from small gaps or bonus seconds, while also possessing the characteristics to attack around Beverley.
If the sprint teams lose control, those riders can make the race awkward very quickly.
Best time to watch Tour of Britain Stage 3 today
For UK viewers, the main times are:
- 10:20 BST: ITV4 live coverage begins
- 10:30 BST: Neutralised rollout from East Park in Hull
- 10:45 BST: Official race start
- 11:49-12:03 BST: Race expected through Hornsea
- 12:15-12:35 BST: Burton Agnes
- 12:57-13:26 BST: Driffield
- 13:25-14:00 BST: Wetwang
- 13:45 BST: Best time to join for the complete finale
- 13:53-14:35 BST: Race expected to reach Beverley
- 14:43 BST: Earliest projected finish
- 15:10 BST: Central expected finish time
- 15:36 BST: Latest official timetable projection
- 20:00 BST: ITV4 Stage 3 highlights
ITV4 and ITVX provide the easiest free UK viewing options, while the official Tour of Britain YouTube channel also carries the race live. TNT Sports 1 and HBO Max are available for subscribers.
For anyone only interested in the decisive racing, 13:45 BST is the point to aim for. It gives enough margin to see the transition into Beverley, the finishing circuit and the complete battle for position before the uphill drag to the racecourse.
Merlier proved in Skegness that giving him a clean sprint is unlikely to end well for his rivals. Stage 3 offers Kooij and the stronger Classics riders more opportunities to make sure he does not get one.
