photo credits@ RCS
Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) claimed stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia in Melfi today, beating Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) to the line in an uphill sprint.
With 200 meters to go, the Australian rider executed his winning move, holding off Pedersen, after positioning himself on the wheel of the former World Champion during the final kilometer before passing the Dane just before the line to snatch the stage honors.
Prior, Pedersen and the Alpecin-Deceuninck duo of Stefano Oldani and Kaden Groves were breathing down his neck in the closing 100 meters.
Pedersen, who had fought back to a reduced peloton, after being dropped on the final climb of the day 30 kilometers out, came back in the closing meters, but couldn’t do enough to overhaul Matthews. Behind them, Oldani seemed to get in Groves’ way, leaving Matthews to finish it off upfront.
Race Highlights
The moment the race director dropped his flag, after a long neutralized roll-out, two young riders from debutants Team Corratec – Selle Italia, Veljko Stojnic and Alexander Konychev, eased themselves away from the bunch. And that was that.
Both briefly looked around, incredulous that it could be that easy, laughing when they saw that there was no other rider even sniffing around to join them, before pressing on into the race lead.
For some 150km that was pretty much the state of things. The pair did not hang around, covering some 45km in the first hour and seldom letting up as they extended their advantage to close to seven minutes.
The second hour, after the race had headed inland saw an uncontested intermediate sprint up front at Foggia, with the Italian rider taking the top spot in that competition. A slightly more competitive sprint took place from behind, with Pedersen, who had previously expressed his hope to add the maglia ciclamino to his Tour de France maillot vert, claiming most of the remaining points.
Meanwhile, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) looked comfortable despite the furious pace set over the Cat. 3 and Cat. 4 climbs of Valico dei Laghi di Monticchio and Valico La Croce, and he extended his GC lead after picking up bonus seconds at the late intermediate sprint.
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