Ben Healy attacks, slips back on toughest stage in Luxembourg | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Ben Healy threw in an attack on the final of the stage, which saw the field split to pieces, but he paid the price later in the day (Photo: Anouk Flesch)*

Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) threw in an attack on today's stage 3 at Tour de Luxembourg, the hardest in the race, with some of the other big names moving with him. But the Irishman paid for his efforts later in the day.

He slipped back, with race leader Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) for company. However, Healy at least had the consolation of his team mate Richard Carapaz, who is also returning to racing, being in the front group during the final of the stage.

Healy made a move off the front of the favourites' group, with the early breakaway men still just up the road, on the second of three passages of the Montée de Niklosbierg. That climb on the finishing circuit was a brutish 2.8km at 9.2 per cent gradient, which began with a short cobbled sector.

Eventual stage winner, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and fellow favourite Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), responded immediately to the acceleration of Healy, as they began to catch the breakaway men going backwards on the steep incline.

However, Healy then slipped off the back of the favourites' group, perhaps having made his move in a bid to help Carapaz rather than believing he could take a result himself today; on the course he won on two years ago.

As Healy was distanced, the favourites' group still numbered about 25 riders, but on the final time up the climb, 10 riders went forward, including McNulty, Carapaz and Skjelmose with about 10km still to go.

The finish in Vianden was contested on the short cobbled section that opened the main climb; Skjelmose going early and also being caught by Jordan Jegat (Team TotalEnergies) on the line. However, the French rider had to settle for 2nd place. McNulty was 3rd at two seconds.

Healy trailed in back in 25th at 1:48, though with 170km of tough racing in his legs as he continues his return to the peloton following almost two months away, since his epic peformance at the Tour de France, where he won a stage and held the yellow jersey for two days.

Skjelmose now leaders the race by four seconds from Jegat, with McNulty in 3rd at eight seconds ahead of the 26.3km stage 4 TT in Niederanven tomorrow, Saturday.