Maglia rosa Rohan Dennis (BMC) and Points leader Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) ahead of stage 3 at the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) wins stage 3 at the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Rohan Dennis surrounded by his BMC teammates during stage 3 at the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Chris Froome (Team Sky) during stage 3 at the Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Marco Frapporti of Italy and Team Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec / Guillaume Boivin of Canada and Team Israel Cycling Academy / Enrico Barbin of Italy and Team Bardiani CSF Blue Mountain Jersey(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) – stage winner in Eilat
Bennett's change of line was very brusque. He left some space for me to go through and so that helped. When you go for a gap like that, you make some contact but it was right on the limit. It came to the point that I had to choose between closing my eyes and going for it or pull back. In the end, I touched him to make him aware that I was next to him.
I went for it because I wanted to win. Yesterday proved I can win and so I wanted it again. Sprinters are a bit crazy in the finale. If I went for it, I knew I had a chance of staying up, passing him and winning.
We're heading to Italy with two stage wins, the ciclamino points jersey and the best young rider’s jersey with Max Schachmann. Our goal was to win stages and scores points, we've done that. We also picked up 12 points in the intermediate sprints. We've had two good days. Things couldn't go better.
It was a very long day and a little stressful with the wind. Nothing much happened till the last 10km. There were some splits but the team did a great job and kept me up front. It was a maximum effort to stay safe and avoid the splits in the finish.
Next up is Sicily. The pink jersey is the big memory of Israel for me. Hopefully we can take pink to Sicily. From now on it's day by day trying to keep it as long as possible. The day we do lose it, it's about fighting to get to Rome.
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I think there'll be a little bit more stress but it's nice to take pink to Italy, first time I’ve kept it more than one day.
Our Giro d'Italia has to be on the attack. Today it was a good stage with some spectacular scenery. It was hard but we went out front. We suffered in three but we had some fun.
The desert scenery helped pass the time. If there'd been a few more riders in the break maybe we would have had a better chance of saying away but we caught six kilometres from the finish. We could have made it but at least we tried hard. Now I'm looking forward to a massage to get the fatigue out of my legs.
It was quite a relaxed start but it wound up to be quite a stressful final. Obviously with the tailwind it was really high speed and quite dangerous racing.
Everyone wanted to fight for the front in the final. We all knew that the roundabouts and the U-turn ahead of the final kilometre would be key moments, and potentially where splits would happen, so we all wanted to be on the right side of those.
It was a big fight coming into the final but the guys did a great job keeping me up front. Now I'm just looking forward to a rest/travel day tomorrow before we head to Sicily and start some proper climbing again.
Guillaume Boivin (Israel Cycling Academy) - Breakaway rider in stage 2 and stage 3
Today was the day that I wanted to be in the breakaway. Yesterday wasn't really part of our plan. Today's stage, I rode these roads during the training camp and nine times out of ten coming down that last downhill, there is a massive tailwind, so I knew if we could get there, with a big enough gap, it would be hard for the peloton to close the gap.
You can only ride your bike so fast; we were riding 70 kph, so they must have been riding 75. I gave it a try but in the end our breakaway came apart a little bit. We weren't strong enough. To go solo from 15km out, for one guy, it's just too much, so it's a bit of a shame.
We gave it a good try and hopefully it was a little bit suspenseful for the people watching on TV.
