Tinkoff-Saxo’s Peter Sagan once again showed that he holds a powerful sprint as he came flying from behind in the narrow streets of Arezzo. Despite a powerful final acceleration, Sagan ran out of runway and had to settle for second place behind Greg van Avermaet. The Slovak champion retains his position as second overall after a day, where Tinkoff-Saxo took responsibility in the pack.
Following the stage finish, Team Manager Bjarne Riis noted that the tricky parcours into the center of Arezzo meant that Sagan had to start his sprint further back than ideal.
“Maciej Bodnar pulled hard before entering the narrow roads in the final kilometer and Sagan was delivered in a good position. We saw a hectic fight for positioning in the old city center and I think that Peter did a good job in sticking to the front. He went into the last few hundred meters in a good position but he was closed down a bit going into the final corner, which meant that he was just a little too far back to overtake Avermaet in the end”, says Bjarne Riis after the stage before adding about the result:
“Of course, we were aiming for the win but the way he came from behind on the last 100 meters certainly shows that he has power in the legs and that he’s improving”.
Peter Sagan had started the day with high expectations aiming for the win. After the stage, Sagan admitted that he was disappointed with missing out on the win by the length of a wheel.
“I’d like to thank all my teammates for their excellent work today. They pushed hard all day and gave their best to bring me in a good position for the final sprint. I was really looking forward to winning today and the team really deserved a victory. However, it didn’t turn out that way as I made a mistake. I entered the final corner too late and I was four or five positions down and had to overtake too many to get to the front. I finished in second place, I am sorry for the guys but that’s cycling”, comments Peter Sagan.
The riders at Tirreno-Adriatico had to tackle a 203km rolling parcours on stage 3. However, the road kicked up during the final kilometer, as the riders entered the old city center of Arezzo in Tuscany. Bjarne Riis adds that Tinkoff-Saxo pulled at the front of the main punch throughout the stage with 25-year old Chris Juul-Jensen carrying out a big workload.
“A five man group got away early on the stage, but Chris Juul controlled the gap at the front throughout most of the stage. He made a fantastic piece of work and put in a big effort for the team. Then Tosatto came to the front and the two of them closed the last bit of the gap together. The rest of the guys protected Alberto and Peter and made sure that they didn’t spend too much energy”, concludes Bjarne Riis, who’s eyeing new opportunities in tomorrow’s more lumpy stage finish to Castelraimondo.
