The third stage, at 220 km in length, commenced in Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci, and concluded in Orbetello on the Tuscan coast. The route crossed through slightly hilly landscapes around Siena before reaching the area around Grosseto, and was tailor-made for the sprinters to shine.
After the only climb of the day, the Poggio L’Appartita (Cat. 4), the parcours featured flat terrain into Orbetello with the only difficulty being a chicane just 400m ahead of the finish line. With Pascal Ackermann, wearer of the Maglia Ciclamino, BORA-hansgrohe had a hot favorite among their ranks today. After only a few kilometres a soloist escaped and the field conceded an advantage of around seven minutes during the course of the day. The race situation remained unchanged for quite some time but when Lotto Soudal increased the pace, the distance to the escapee diminished slowly and after 140 km on the front he was eventually reeled in.
With 50 km to the finish line, BORA – hansgrohe came to the front to control the tempo. Shortly afterwards, Bahrain-Merida, Jumbo Visma and Mitchelton- Scott joined the squad from Raubling in the pace-setting. With 15km to go, the teams of the fast men also moved up front to position their fast men, with crosswinds being expected on the last part of the course.
The race proceeded in a relatively orderly fashion, however with 5 km remaining, the finale was ushered in and Deuceuninck Quickstep ramped up the speed. A crash occurred in a hectic finish, which tore the field apart, but BORA – hansgrohe had Ackermann as well as Majka and Formolo in the front of the group.
In the last 1000 m, Rudi Selig led out the German road champion almost perfectly, and after a tricky series of corners, Ackermann faced the headwind with 200 m remaining. However, he launched his sprint somewhat too early, and E. Viviani sprinted first over the line. However, the Italian was later relegated due to an irregular sprint manoeuvre and F. Gaviria was left to take the stage win. Pascal moved up to third place on the stage, while Rafal Majka was able to maintain his 6th place in the overall classification.
Result
01 F. Gaviria 5:23:19
02 A. Démare + 0:00
03 P. Ackermann + 0:00
04 M. Moschetti + 0:00
From the finish line
“I think that we did a good job, but in the end my timing didn’t work out and I went too early into the headwind. Given these circumstances, we can be happy with a third place. But there are still more stages to come, where we can hopefully put up a good fight.”
– Pascal Ackermann
“We were very motivated and were ready to support Pascal 100 per cent. Due to the winds today we also rode offensively and I have to say that the guys did a superb job. We would have almost reached our goal on this stage, but today the other sprinters were either faster or had a little more luck. But one can’t win all the time in cycling. Tomorrow’s stage doesn’t quite suit Pascal, with its uphill finish, however we’ll have another attempt to take a victory on the stage afterwards. He is currently in good form and I am confident that we will be able to notch up another win.”
– Christian Poemer, Sports Director
