Tim Merlier made it three stage wins at this year’s Tour de France on Thursday, sprinting to victory in Chalon-sur-Saône ahead of Olav Kooij and Jasper Philipsen.A largely pedestrian stage burst into life in the closing 40 kilometres as Lidl-Trek tried to defend Mads Pedersen’s green jersey by repeatedly attempting to split the peloton on some lumpy terrain.The pure sprinters’ teams kept things together, however, which set up another fast finish — a finale that was marred by a nasty crash involving Fernando Gaviria that took down several riders.Jacob Whitehead analyzes the action.Huge crash as Merlier completes stage win hat-trickLargely, this Tour has avoided large crashes in the peloton — but the closing kilometres of sprint stages are the race’s most dangerous moment.With 500m remaining, Caja Rural’s Fernando Gaviria fell hard onto his left side after overlapping the wheel of a Bahrain-Victorious rider who cut across him, hitting his head and suffering a suspected broken collarbone.His fall, in turn, brought down yesterday’s stage winner Soren Waerenskjold, with Netcompany-Ineos’ Dorian Godon then flying into the Norwegian as he rolled along the floor. After the stage it was confirmed that Gaviria had indeed broken his clavicle.Tim Merlier, as he has throughout the Tour, read the mayhem perfectly to surge through the middle and outlast the fast-finishing Olav Kooij, with Jasper Philipsen in third place.Merlier revealed post-stage that his Soudal Quick-Step team’s radios had broken during the stage. At the finish, he was met by his wife Cameron and young son — his partner is the daughter of late Belgian cycling hero Frank Vandenbroucke.“It gave me extra motivation (them being here),” Merlier said. “We had some radio problems, the other guys were all coming to me, and I didn’t know about the (Lidl-Trek) attack with 27 riders. (Leadout) Jasper Stuyven then got a flat tire, he wasn’t sure if he could do the leadout, but we stayed calm, and I was on a good day.”