MERZIG: Slovenia's Matej Mohoric made amends for his narrow defeat the day earliere by winning the third stage of the Tour of Germany on Saturday to claim the overall lead on the penultimate day.

Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas of Wales was again outside the first ten finishers and the Team Sky rider is out of contention for the German title.

The 23-year-old Team Bahrain-Merida rider won the stage from Trier to Merzig, covering the 177 kilometres in four hours, 12.28 minutes, in a blanket finish with Germany's Nils Politt second and Belgium's Pieter Vanspeybrouck third.

Having lost out on the line to Germany's Maximilian Schachmann in Friday's photo finish in Trier, Mohoric made no mistake 24 hours later in Merzig by passing Politt in the final metres to take the stage and claim the red jersey as Tour leader.

Berlin-born Schachmann finished seventh and is now six seconds behind Mohoric in second overall.

The four-day Tour de Germany, which is back after a ten-year hiatus, concludes on Sunday on the final stage from Lorsch to Stuttgart over 207.5km which has three climbs.