After a brutal, undulating stage in the Pennines, the Tour de France enjoyed a flatter, more sedate offering as stage three wound its way from Cambridge to London.

But what sort of power do the pros put out on the flat, sprint stages?

Through the ever-popular route-mapping app Strava, which several of the riders use, it is possible to track the pros’ numbers.

And the answer on stage three? A sedate offering over the first 30 kilometres and a stunning acceleration on the Mall for the sprint finish.

A bunch sprint moves fast, as we all know, but Niki  Terpstra’s 70.4km/h – with his power meter recording no output – is still pretty frightening.

His job, forming part of the lead-out which set Mark Renshaw up to finish third, was already complete and yet he still went through the final 350 metres at ferocious speed in the bunch.

Terpstra’s whole ride produces some frightening numbers for us mere mortals, the Paris-Roubaix winner having endured a Strava ‘suffer score’ of just 73 on the 156.5km ride.

Much of this was thanks to a slower than anticipated start to the race in which the peloton was happy to set a sedate pace as two men – Jan Barta and Jean-Marc Bideau – formed the day’s break.

Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing) was the fastest of the Strava pros in the opening 30 kilometres, with those using power meters – Terpstra, Lars Boom and Laurens ten Dam showing there was no exertion for those happy to ride in the wheels.

Given the numbers put on stage two, it is perhaps unsurprising the peloton was happy to ease up on stage three – particularly with a sprint finish never really in doubt.

Whether the same will ring true of the flat stage four, as hostilities resume in France for stage four, remains to be seen however.

I’m setting up a help group for people who’ve had their KOM’s stolen this week by the invaders from the continent. #aprostolemykom

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) July 8, 2014

One thing that is for certain, though, is with the peloton heading back across the Channel, the UK’s Strava users can pick up the remains of their shattered King of the Mountains records.

Have you lost a KoM to a pro this weekend? Let us know in the forum