The Tour in Tweets: Stage 3

This wasn't the slowest stage in Tour history, but it wasn't far off. Here's the internet view from inside and outside the peloton of the Tour de France's unoffiicial rest day.

This is the fastest they moved all day (or a really long exposure) Source: AAP

Normally we stare agape at the feats of speed and endurance performed by the elite of the elite who ride the Tour de France. On Stage 3 of this week's race, not so much.

In fact, the speeds on display were more akin to those seen on Sunday morning coffee cruises around the world, with the bunch averaging less that 34kmh for the first four hours of the race. Here they are going through the feedzone at roughly walking pace.

However, the lack of action on the road did afford us the opportunity to enjoy the sights in the surrounding fields, including hovercraft racing!

Plus, the immortal Les Vaches du Tour made an appearance.

These particular vaches may have been plastic, but they were still more animated than the peloton.

Inevitably, the viewership started getting a little bit restless.

As did 'TV Tommy' Voeckler, who spotted a camera and strangely found himself irresistibly drawn towards it - ruining Armindo Fonseca's attempt to stage a hashtag-epic hashtag-doomed hashtag-lone breakaway.

Finally some action for this boring #Stage3 #Tdf2016 #thomasvoeckler pic.twitter.com/BrpifhYSeF — american-i-on-lyon (@americanionlyon) July 4, 2016

Still, it all came together in the end for a nicely messy sprint. Be warned, though: tomorrow's stage is just as flat and even longer at 237km, so there's a strong chance we could get a repeat performance from the bunch. It does look like Peter Sagan is concocting a plan to make things a little more lively...