Giro d'Italia 2024 Stage 3

May 6, 2024 The profile made for a nailed on sprint stage. No one ventured into breakaway, leaving the peloton to self regulate the speed. The first hour of racing took the riders just 38KM down the road as some riders had averaged less than 150 watts for that time. Lilian Calmejane of Intermarché-Wanty got things started at 114KM to go, followed by Davide Ballerini of Astana. Calmejane was up for the few mountains points available on the fourth category climb of Lu. He took the points and dropped back to the peloton, leaving Ballerini alone at the front. Ballerini thought better about the effort and decided to go back to the peloton as well with 100KM to go. After the intermediate sprint, a group of 24 riders found themselves with a gap of over a minute, including many of the top sprinters. They took a moment to evaluate the group and then started to roll through. The entire group were taking turns as the peloton started to panic. Polti-Kometa, Movistar, and Bahrain-Victorious missed the move and were pulling hard behind. The peloton split into a few parts with 60KM to go as the first part of the peloton had the front riders to within 30 seconds. The multiple chase groups came together and the writing was on the wall for the front group, finally being reeled in at 43.5KM to race. Positioning in color order really picked up at 16KM to go as the route started to twist left and right with a few hills to navigate. Mikkel Honoré of EF-Education EasyPost attacked over the top of the final hill at 3KM, dragging Tadej Pogačar of UAE and Geraint Thomas of Ineos. Pogačar started to pull but their lead was narrow with 800M to go. The sprinters would not be denied however, catching Pogačar and Thomas with 200M. In the sprint, Tobias Lund Andresen of DSM-Firmenich came fast through the center with Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek drag racing on the left side of the road. Neither would take the win because Tim Merlier of Soudal Quickstep went on the right side of the road and was able to take the win. Milan was half a wheel back in second place with Biniam Girmay of Intermarché-Wanty in third.