• Colombian 3rd in sprinter’s first big test •
UAE Team Emirates’ Colombian fastman, Fernando Gaviria showed his sprinting legs are coming to the boil in a vigorous three-horse sprint finish on stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia from Kaposvár to Balatonfüred (201km) on the flat final leg of the Hungarian Grand Depart.
The peloton held a pedestrian pace for much of the day before bursting into action in the final 20km with the speeds ramping up in excess of 60kmph.
In the final kilometre Gaviria’s teammate, Rui Oliveira guided leadout man Max Richeze and Gaviria into the last 500m in a fantastic position. Richeze opened up the sprint on the left hand side of the road with Gaviria squeezing through but just being denied by winner of the day Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl).
Gaviria: “It was a hard and very fast sprint. We fought to win it and did our best to be up there. The team did a great job to keep me at the front. We’ll look to the next opportunities, we’re happy with today and how it went but we are also focussed on going for a win in the chances to come.”
Joao Almeida remains best placed in the General Classification sitting just outside of the top 10 in 11th spot as Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) leads the race. Almeida will be eyeing Tuesday’s Stage 4 in Sicily as an opportunity to claw back some time on the leader.
Stage 3 results
1.Mark Cavendish (Quick Step Alpha Vinyl) 4:56:39
2.Arnaud Demare (FDJ-Groupama) s.t
3.Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) s.t
General Classification after stage 3
1.Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) 9:43:50
2.Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) +11
3.Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) +16’’
11. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +29’’
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