This was his 16th stage win of the race in his career, 160th win overall.
Mattia Bais and Filippo Tagliani of the Drone Hopper Androni Trasmori together with Samuele Rivi of the Eolo Kometa set off on a reconnaissance from kilometer 0. Tagliani was caught after 158 km, Bais and Rivi after 174. And from that moment on. the great maneuvers of the sprinter teams began.
All In A Kilometer—
Van der Poel’s pink jersey was seen in the top positions up to 600 meters, then the Quick Step train came out.First Ballerini, then Morkov managed to better launch the British Cavendish who at the finish line preceded the French Demare (Groupama-Fdj) and the Colombian Gaviria (Uea Emirates).
The Manxman and his team timed their move to perfection and moving early, was able to hold off the challenge of a desperate bunch who could not catch him. The Manxman was dropped off by his final lead-out man Michael Mørkøv with just under 300m to go and was able to hold his effort all the way to the line to beat Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates).
Démare inched Gaviria to second place, while Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) found himself boxed in and had to settle for fourth.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) retained the pink jersey as overall leader after switching to a support role. He looked to lead-out Jakub Mareczko but the Italian was slighty out of position and could only manage fifth place despite hitting the line with speed.
2022 Giro d’Italia Stage 3
01 GBR Mark Cavendish Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team 04:56:39
02 FRA Arnaud Démare Groupama-FDJ + 00
03 COL Fernando Gaviria UAE Team Emirates + 00
2022 Giro d’Italia GC after stage 3
- Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Alpecin-Fenix, in 9-43-50
- Simon Yates (GBr) Team BikeExchange-Jayco, at 11s
- Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 16s
Tomorrow day of rest, Tuesday we leave with the Avola-Etna (172 km)
