today, 5:28 PM | by Marnix Taes
Tim Merlier won the third stage in the Giro d’Italia on Monday. The sprinter from Soudal Quick-Step was the fastest in a bunch sprint after a ride of 166.3 kilometers between Novara and Fossano. Pink jersey Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) attacked in the final phase together with Geraint Thomas, but stranded within sight of the finish.
The riders started in Novara, a town between Milan and Turin and the place where Tim Merlier achieved his very first victory in a Grand Tour three years ago. From that starting point the drivers headed south, but the riders had little to fear beforehand, which played into the hands of the sprinters.
What really played into the hands of the fast men was the lack of an escape. It is often a battle to get to the top, but on Monday no one really felt like going on a voyage of discovery. Only Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché-Wanty) and Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan) briefly rode ahead of the sleeping peloton, but that was more for the mountain points on the first and only climb of the day towards Lu (3.8 km at 3.8 %) to steal away. After the climb, the duo quickly caught up again.
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Large group causes chaos, Uijtdebroeks is surprised
After the intermediate sprint, which Jonathan Milan won, a very bizarre situation arose. Due to the slackening peloton, a large group with all the fast men simply drove away from the rest. Alpecin-Deceuninck had almost its entire sprint train with it and decided to continue at full speed.
Bahrain Victorious (Phil Bauhaus), Polti Kometa (Giovanni Lonardi) and Movistar (Fernando Gaviria) had been surprised and had to work hard to get back, which in turn created cracks in the peloton. Some classification men such as white jersey Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike), Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana Qazaqstan) and Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) had been surprised, causing their teammates in turn to chase.
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However, more than forty kilometers from the finish, the regrouping was a fact. No more stressing, after which we again moved at a reasonable pace towards the final. It started at just over twenty kilometers with the intermediate sprint in Cherasco, where a few bonus seconds were up for grabs. Connor Swift stole a second from Pogacar’s pink jersey, but the Slovenian was able to add another two seconds to his lead over his competitors. Thomas also took a second back from Daniel Felipe Martinez (BORA-hansgrohe).
Pogacar and Thomas try to outwit sprinters, Merlier beats Milan
The Italian village was located on a road that already ran 1.2 kilometers uphill at 6.1 percent, and then another hundred vertical meters had to be covered in two steps in twelve kilometers. The pace was again seriously increased by BORA-hansgrohe (Martinez), INEOS-Grenadiers (Geraint Thomas), Soudal Quick-Step (Tim Merlier) and Groupama-FDJ (Laurence Pithie), making the race a bit more nervous and chaotic again .
After a descent of four kilometers it went uphill again at 5.3 percent over a length of 1.6 kilometers. Thymen Arensman gave a much better impression compared to the previous days, but it was Pogacar who once again attracted all the attention. The pink jersey went with an attack by Mikkel Honnoré (EF Education-EassyPost) and also saw Thomas return. The Dane had to pass quickly and Pogacar and Thomas continued together. In the final straight line the duo was swallowed up by the peloton, where Jonathan Milan seemed to be on his way to victory for a long time. The Lidl-Trek sprinter had to start from a little too far, so he was still beaten on the line by Merlier. Wow!
Results stage 3 Giro d’Italia 2024
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2024-05-06 15:28:00
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