photo credits @ Tirreno-Adriatico
Phil Bauhaus claimed stage 3 victory in the Tirreno-Adriatico today, after a gripping finale that saw Jasper Philipsen suffer a crash in a chaotic end to the race.
This was the longest stage of the race, as the riders took the grueling 225km route from Volterra to Gualdo Taldino in the challenging weather conditions.
The podium was comprised of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in second and Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B) in third.
Speaking after the stage, Bauhaus admitted he thought victory may have been beyond him.
“To be honest, no. When I checked the profile, I thought it was pretty much on the limit for me,” he replied when asked if he thought victory was possible.
“I was suffering, of course, on the last climb, but the team believed in me the whole day and yesterday evening they said it was a good chance for me.
“Into the last kilometer, I was in a perfect position then I luckily had the legs to do a good sprint and I’m super happy to have my first win this year.”
Race Highlights
Jan Stöckli (Corratec-Vini Fantini) and Italian Samuele Zoccarato (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) attacked almost from the start, with their advantage later ballooning to over eleven minutes after 40 kilometers of racing.
In the meantime, the peloton was content to sit back and conserve energy with the intermediate sprint, while Stöckli and Zoccarato stayed out in front until the sprint at Sant’Arcangelo, around 80km from the finish, where the Swiss rider took full points and moved to the top of the points classification as well.
Back in the main field, Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) out-sprinted race leader Ayuso for the one bonus second, cutting the Spaniard’s lead over him to 26 seconds.
Having claimed the points, and likely tired from two days in the break, Stöckli then dropped away leaving Zoccarato alone at the front.
After a dry first half of the stage, the weather turned poor along the chilly Tuscan countryside.
With the rain lashing down, Zoccarato was eventually caught halfway up the day’s major climb, while EF Education-EasyPost set the pace on the 7km climb’s toughest sections, gearing up for Alberto Bettiol to challenge for the win and aiming to discard as many sprinters as possible.
Meanwhile, Richard Carapaz’s GC hopes were largely over following a disastrous time trial on stage 1, but he showed his climbing prowess as the peloton strung themselves out behind him, seizing the KOM points that put Ecuadorian into the green climber’s jersey at the end of the day.
As the riders descended into a complicated and uphill final Alpecin-Deceunick swung back onto the front, with stage 2 winner Philipsen still looking strong in the twists and turns approaching the line in Gualdo Tadino.
But Philipsen was among several riders caught out on a sharp turn in the last 500m, crashing into the barriers and ending his challenge for a second consecutive stage win.
Elsewhere, Milan found himself in perfect position during the last 1.5km, but Bauhaus had a better lunge for the line and took his first win of the season.
EF Education-EasyPost’s blistering pace on the climb wasn’t enough to manoeuver their man into the top spot and Bettiol had to settle for fourth place.
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