Tirreno-Adriatico 2019: Stage 3

By
published

January 1 - March 19, Pomerance, Italy, Road - WorldTour

Refresh

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 3 of Tirreno-Adriatico. Today's largely flat 226km stage runs from Pomerance to Foligno.

 

Today's stage is set to kick off in around 20 minutes. It looks like we'll see the first mass sprint finish of the race, unless the inevitable breakaway have something up their sleeve.

The peloton will head to Umbria today, right in the centre of Italy. It's the longest stage of the race and features just two classified climbs, both coming relatively early on in the stage.

Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) won yesterday's stage on the uphill finish in Pomerance. He beat Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) to take his sixth victory of the season. 

Today it should be one for the sprinters. Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) won't be contesting the stage, though. He finished the opening team time trial outside of the stage limit. Read more about that here.

And the peloton will be setting off from the start right about now.

Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) is today's only non-starter. The Italian is suffering from knee pain.

Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) is today's only non-starter. The Italian is suffering from knee pain.

Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan will be looking to be in the mix at the stage finish today. The triple world champion has been recovering from an stomach virus. For more on that, read our story here.

210km remaining from 224km

The gap between break and peloton is already up to five minutes.

Tomasz Marczyński (Lotto-Soudal) has abandoned the race due to illness, the team reports.

190km remaining from 224km

178km remaining from 224km

170km remaining from 224km

Kurianov, Maestri, Tonelli, Cataford was the order over the intermediate sprint at Monticiano.

Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick Step) looks to be the hot favourite to win today's stage should it come down to a sprint. The Italian already has three WorldTour wins to his name this season, at the Tour Down Under, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, and the UAE Tour. He spoke to Cyclingnews yesterday.

152km remaining from 224km

Stage 6 of Paris-Nice has recently gotten underway. You can follow that live too, here.

140km remaining from 224km

An average of 39km/h after the first two hours of racing.

The gap is stable at around four minutes at the moment. There's around 20km to run until the second and final climb of the day.

Mitchelton-Scott are doing the bulk of the work at the head of the peloton at the moment. No surprise, given that their man Adam Yates is race leader.

The riders reach the 100km mark and the situation remains the same with six men out front, around four minutes ahead of the peloton.

112km remaining from 224km

With Maestri and Berhane in the break, the duo will be looking to secure leads in the points and mountain classifications respectively. One intermediate sprint and one classified climb remain on the stage.

The break are approaching the second and final climb of the day at La Foce.

Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) has hit the deck at some point. He's at the medical car getting his left elbow bandaged. That might affect his sprint chances later if it's a painful one.

The break is 2km from the top of the climb.

101km remaining from 224km

4:30 for the break now.

We're inside the final 100km now. There's an intermediate sprint coming up soon and then... not much, a few lumps aside, until the finish.

Nizzolo's elbow is bandaged up and his left shoulder is ripped, exposing his tattoo. He's riding at the back of the peloton alongside Steve Cummings at the moment.

91km remaining from 224km

81km remaining from 224km

Maestri immediately drops back from the break, probably looking to save energy for future forays out front in a bid to contest the points classification until the end of the race.

75km remaining from 224km

Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) is at the back of the peloton. Possibly returning from a mechanical issue. There's a long way to go though, so no panic.

67km remaining from 224km

There are no sprints or climbs to reward the break over the remainder of the stage, so it's pretty much a case of waiting for the kilometres to tick down until the peloton decide to reel them in foor good.

After four hours of racing, the average speed has been 39km/h.

54km remaining from 224km

Dimension Data have sent a rider to the front. Either Nizzolo is feeling better after his crash, or Van Rensburg will have a go in the sprint.

49km remaining from 224km

43km remaining from 224km

38km remaining from 224km

31km remaining from 224km

Quick Step have added another man to the head of the peloton in the shape of Zdeněk Štybar.

Now the gap is down to two minutes as the riders reach the final 30km.

They're speeding towards the finish now. 23km to go and the gap is just 1:30. It's just a matter of time for the break.

22km remaining from 224km

There's a bit of a technical finish today, with a 90-degree left and sharp right just ahead of the flamme rouge, and then a sweeping right-hander 250 metres from the line.

17km remaining from 224km

14km remaining from 224km

10km remaining from 224km

EF Education First have moved to the front. Sacha Modolo will be their option for the sprint.

7km remaining from 224km

Schönberger is the most aggressive in the break, attacking twice so far.

Three distinct trains emerge at the head of the peloton – Quick Step, Mitchelton and EF.

5km remaining from 224km

4km remaining from 224km

Team Sky have moved to the front, protecting their GC rider Wout Poels as they head to the 3km mark.

3km remaining from 224km

2km remaining from 224km

2km remaining from 224km

Viviani and Gaviria move up into the top ten.

1km remaining from 224km

0km remaining from 224km

Around the final bend and Sagan launches the sprint!

Viviani comes off his wheel in the final 200 metres and sprints by! It's another win for Elia Viviani.

Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) took second, edging ahead of Sagan in the final metres too.

The Colombian stuck to Viviani's wheel and nipped Sagan on the line.

It's stage win number four in 2019 for Elia Viviani. The Italian champion also won the points classification at the UAE Tour.

That's Deceuninck-Quick Step's second win in two days at Tirreno-Adriatico. That makes it 17 in 2019.

Turns out Gaviria just lost out to Sagan on the line. He finished third today.

Here's the top ten on the stage.

The GC remains unchanged, with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) retaining the blue jersey ahead of teammate Brent Bookwalter and Primož Roglič.

Peter Sagan has been recovering from a virus, so a very good showing from him on such a long stage, considering that Milan-San Remo is fast approaching.

Stage result

That's all from us today. Be sure to visit again tomorrow for our live coverage of stage 4!

Latest on Cyclingnews