The 26-year-old Trek-Segarfredo rider, who won the world road race title in Harrogate three years ago, finished the 190.8km route from Vierzon to Dun-le-Palestel in 4hr 23min 29sec after holding off van Aert's challenge.

Bryan Coquard of Cofidis nipped in to take second place ahead of the Belgian, who remains second in the general classification.

"He started really early and he was apparently strong enough to keep it to the line," van Aert told reporters at the finish.

"It’s a really impressive sprint from him and I was not strong enough to give him competition."

Van Aert is just one second behind his Jumbo-Visma team-mate Christophe Laporte, who crashed in the final sprint but got up to finish, with his shorts torn, for an overall time of 11hr 34min 44sec.

Laporte crossed the line shaking his head although he was awarded the same time as the rest of the bunch given the incident occurred within the final three kilometres.

"It’s nothing serious, but it’s never fun to crash," he said.

Jumbo-Visma’s grip on the overall standings remains in place, as their likely number one Primož Roglič, who crashed out when leading on the final stage last year, remains in third place, just nine seconds adrift of Laporte.

Stage four tomorrow will take the form of an individual time trial on a 13.4km (8.3 miles) route from Domerat to Montlucon.