Pozzovivo wins Giro del Trentino stage in Fierozzo Val dei Mocheni

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Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) nabbed his second victory of the 2015 season, jumping away on the final climb to Fierozzo Val Dei Mocheni to win stage 3 of the Giro del Trentino by five seconds over Mikel Landa (Astana) and Richie Porte (Sky).

The win followed excellent teamwork by AG2R, who placed Hubert Dupont and Hugo Houle in a 15-rider day-long breakaway of the mountainous 183.8km stage from Ala that featured three major climbs in the last 65km - the category 2 Montagnaga, category 1 Passo Redebus and the final ascent to Fierozzo Val Die Mocheni.

"We worked efficiently the day before but it didn’t succeed. Today, our tactic was perfect and I warmly thank Hubert Dupont and Hugo Houle in the breakaway," Pozzovivo said. "I knew that I could play my card. I took advantage of Romain Bardet’s attack because I didn't have to make efforts. I finished the amazing job of the whole team. I haven’t won two races in the same season since 2012. I hope that my form will last."

Dupont was the last man caught on the Redebus after teammate Houle, Davide Malacarne (Astana), Marco Frapporti and Fabio Taborre (Androni), Mauro Finetto (Southeast), Artem Ovechkin (RusVelo), Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Gustav Larsson (Cult Energy), former race leader Cesare Benedetti and Paul Voss (Bora-Argon 18), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural) and Lukas Pöstlberger (Tirol) were all left behind on the increasingly difficult final half of the stage.

AG2R's Romain Bardet went on the attack before the crest of the Passo Redebus with Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) and Diego Rosa (Astana), and the trio caught and dropped Dupont over the top. Try as they might, the leading trio could never get a minute's lead on the Sky-led peloton.

As they made their way up the category 2 final climb, they were slowly reeled in by the fuchsia jersey group, captained by Kanstantsin Siutsou and Leopold König. There was another attack from Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) and Edorardo Zardini (Bardiani-CSF), but Sky shut it down, too.

Pozzovivo took his chance with 2km to go and, posing little threat at 1:43 on the general classification, he was able to keep his advantage as the top three kept a close eye on each other.

Porte finished third on the same time as second-placed Mikel Landa (Astana), but a time bonus brought him two seconds closer to the Australian, now 22 seconds in arrears, with Porte's teammate Leopold König losing ground in third, now at 58 seconds.

Meintjes continued to show strong climbing form, coming in ninth on the stage to further cement his lead in the best young rider's classification. "The team was amazing today and I couldn’t have asked for more support. All I had to do was focus on the last climb. I tried to make a move with 3km to go but I was chased down immediately. That started the attacks from the rest of the group and everything was just in pieces all the way to the line," Meintjes said.

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