Joel Suter (Tudor) held off the peloton on the twisting uphill finish in Termini Imerese to win stage 3 of the Giro di Sicilia and secure the first win of his professional career.
The Swiss rider was part of the break of the day and then hit out alone in the final 15 kilometres. The peloton had timed their chase well but Suter refused to give up and used his power to speed through the hairpin final climb and hit the line first.
Local rider Filippo Fiorelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) finished four seconds behind Suter, with Elia Viviani (Italian national team) third.
Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) finished in the chase group and so kept his red leader's jersey before Friday's 216 km final stage over Mount Etna to Giarre.
The Kiwi leads Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo-Kometa) by just six seconds, with his teammate Diego Ulissi third at 14 seconds.
Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) slipped out on a late curve but was given the same time as the chasers and so also remains an overall threat. The Ragusa resident is tenth overall at 18 seconds.
Suter gave Tudor their third win of their debut season at ProTeam level and was emotional after his first career victory.
"I'm speechless. Every win and good result is important for the whole team," Suter said.
"I wanted to win but at the halfway point I was pessimistic that we'd stay away. I knew that the other teams would chase and so when the break faded, I went alone."
The 150km stage took the riders from Enna in the rugged and hilly centre of Sicily to the northern coast near Palermo. The climbs came early and helped the break get away after 10km.
Suter, Pierelis Belletta (Biesse-Carrera), Michele Berasi (General Store-Essegibi-F.lli Curia), Roberto Carlos González (Mg.K Vis-Colors for Peace), Giacomo Garavaglia (Work Service-Vitalcare-Dynatek) and Edoardo Faresin (Zalf Euromobil Désirée Fior) joined the move and they soon opened a lead of over a minute.
Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) did some of the chase work on the early climbs as the gap reached 4:00 and then UAE Team Emirates took over to defend Fisher-Black's lead. Bahrain-Victorious, Team Corratec and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty also helped, convinced of their chances on the rising finish.
At the top of the Portella di Bafurco climb after 67 km, the gap was down to 2:25 but then the peloton let the break hang out front on the long descent to the Mediterranean coast.
The real pursuit began on the flat and fast coast road towards Termini Imerese, with Eolo-Kometa sent to the front to chase. The gap fell quickly as other teams joined the chase. When the gap fell to a minute, Suter decided to go solo and surged away from the others.
The peloton lacked riders and teams willing to chase hard and Suter used his time trial skills to stay away to the foot of the climb. He had a lead of 1:00 with 10 km and 12 seconds as he started the 1.2 km hairpin climb to the finish in central Termini Imerese.
The peloton thought they would sweep him up but Suter had something left for the climb and pushed on, reaching the finish line in disbelief.
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