SAN SALVO, Italy — Australian Michael Matthews timed his final effort to perfection to win a rain-affected stage three at the Giro d’Italia, following a 216-km ride from Vasto to Melfi.
Matthews and Mads Pedersen were neck-and-neck until the final corner, but the Australian, who was set up perfectly by his Jayco-AlUla team, moved in front on the home straight to emerge victorious and claim a first stage win at the Giro since 2015.
“They were fully committed for me to win the stage,” stage winner Matthews said according to Reuters.
“I don’t have words at the moment. It’s been such a roller coaster this year. Now already on stage three with a stage win? That’s more than I could ever dream of.”
Trek-Segafredo’s Pedersen finished second, ahead of Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Vincenzo Albanese (EOLO-Kometa).
Corratec-Selle Italia riders Alexander Konychev and Veljko Stojnic were the early pace-setters, leading the stage for the first half of the race, before being reeled in by the main group with 36 km to go.
Belgian Evenepoel extended his lead after taking three bonus seconds to tighten his grip on the leader’s maglia rosa jersey, while Joao Almeida recovered from a fall in slippery conditions to move up to second.
Primoz Roglic, who was eclipsed by rival Evenepoel in the intermediate sprint, climbed to third.
“I went for the time bonus in the intermediate sprint because we were just there as we wanted to stay at front because the rain had made the road a bit dangerous,” Evenepoel said.
“I saw Roglic and his team mates right behind us so I sprinted. It didn’t cost much energy.
“There were a few seconds up for grabs. One second more on Primoz and three on the others, it’s good, especially after such an easy day of racing.”
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) attacked shortly before the peak of the climb in order to secure valuable points for the best climber classification.
Jumbo-Visma’s Sepp Kuss then suffered a mechanical on the descent. He courageously tried to fix the problem while staying on his bike.
Team Jayco-Alula led the peloton on the short climb to the top of Valico la Croce and Pinot again won the sprint for the best climber classification.
UAE Team Emirates’ Joao Almeida crashed with Mads Wurtz Schmidt (Israel-PremierTech), but later rejoined the peloton.
With four kilometers left of the day’s battle, the main peloton was still together, and no riders had managed to escape. However, some riders had been dropped on the climbs. Jayco-Alula was setting a fast pace at the front.
Trek-Segafredo led the front peloton in the final kilometer closely tailed by Jayco-Alula.
Jayco-Alula’s Michael Matthews launched his sprint and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) tried to follow, but Matthews won the stage. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished third.
“To take this stage victory here in Italy is fantastic,” Matthews told Roadcycling.com shortly after finishing the stage.
“I heard that Pedersen was dropped on the climb, but he rejoined, and it worked out anyhow. Today it was such a team effort that win and it was for the boys.”
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