Greg Van Avermaet sprinted to victory on the third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Friday and moved into the overall lead.
The Belgian won in 4 hours, 58 minutes, 17 seconds over the 203km route from Cascina to Arezzo after attacking at the top of the climb with 200m to go.
Peter Sagan, who won the same stage last year, was second. Sagan was poorly positioned on the final corner and although he made up ground up the finishing straight, closing to within half a wheel, Van Avermaet held on. Zdenek Stybar was third.
Photo: EPA
“I looked at stages of Tirreno-Adriatico and was confident for the third and fourth ones,” Van Avermaet said. “This finish really suits me, even if there were some good guys to beat.
“It’s always good when you get the first win of the season. I’ve been close to a win a few times this year but I’m happy to finish it off,” he said.
The BMC rider leads the overall standings two seconds ahead of Sagan. Adriano Malori — who had worn the leader’s blue jersey since winning the opening stage — slipped to third, eight seconds behind.
This year’s race was set to be the first time that four riders with 10 Grand Tour wins between them have competed together in a World Tour stage race, but 2013 Tour de France champion Chris Froome withdrew on Monday last week because of a chest infection.
However, defending Tirreno champion Alberto Contador, two-time winner Vincenzo Nibali and last year’s runner-up Nairo Quintana are in the race.
The fourth stage is a medium-mountain one and the longest of the race at 218km.
The route from Indicatore includes three categorized climbs in the final 80km, concluding in a steep descent to the finish in the municipality of Castelraimondo.
The 50th edition of the race across central Italy ends on Tuesday with an individual time trial.
There were three crashes in Thursday’s stage and Matteo Pelucchi was forced to withdraw before the start of Friday’s leg.
There was an early break of five riders, who escaped in the opening kilometer and had a lead of 14 minutes after 40km with the peloton happy to let them go.
They were caught with 17.5km remaining by the peloton, which was driven by Malori’s Movistar team and the Tinkoff-Saxo team of Sagan as the cyclists prepared for the sprint finale.
Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday claimed the overall Vuelta a Espana lead while Jay Vine earned the stage 10 victory for his second triumph of the race. Two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard overhauled Torstein Traen’s lead to head the general classification by 26 seconds from the Norwegian, with Joao Almeida third and trailing the Dane by 38 seconds. Vine put in an unmatchable performance on the final climb to finish ahead of Spanish Movistar riders Pablo Castrillo and Javier Romo. “Back in red, I’m happy with it, it’s a beautiful jersey,” Vingegaard said. “I’m happy with how the day went,
The Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up a brief visit to Brazil on Friday with a season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, but despite the defeat, the team outshone their divisional rivals in the fight for the hearts and minds of Brazilian fans. In Sao Paulo for just the second-ever NFL game in the city, Chiefs players — especially quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce — were treated as major celebrities throughout their stay, turning Corinthians Arena into a scene reminiscent of the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium. Before kickoff, crowds of fans gathered around the Chiefs’ tunnel, eager to catch a
RIVALRY: Carlos Alcaraz lost his previous two matches against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, in the Australian Open quarter-finals this year and Paris Olympics final last year Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz on Tuesday dazzled at the US Open to make the semi-finals before Novak Djokovic of Serbia danced his way through to book a New York showdown with the Spaniard that would mark the latest chapter in their generational rivalry. Former champion Alcaraz produced yet another entertaining display at Flushing Meadows to dismantle 20th seed Jiri Lehecka 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 at a sunbathed Arthur Ashe Stadium, securing his place in the last four without dropping a set this year. “Sometimes I play a shot that I should not play in that moment, but it’s the way I love
New Zealand stayed firm at their Eden Park fortress to claim an attritional 24-17 win over South Africa in a heavyweight clash between the world’s top two rugby sides yesterday. Under pressure after conceding a first-ever defeat on Argentine soil against the Pumas two weeks ago, the All Blacks responded with a performance of grit and discipline to stretch their unbeaten run at their Auckland stronghold to 51 matches. Two well-taken tries by Emoni Narawa and Will Jordan set up a 14-3 lead at halftime before Quinn Tupaea grabbed a third five-pointer for the hosts 13 minutes from time. Well-held for most of
RSS