Tirreno-Adriatico 2025 Stage 3

March 12, 2025 It's a mammoth stage of 239KM from the coast in Follonica in Tuscany to Umbria in the center of Italy in Colfiorito. There are three categorized climbs, totaling 3,300M of elevation. The climb to the finish of Valico Di Colfiorito is 18KM but it only averages 3%, topping out 4KM before the finish which could make the stage open to many riders for the win. Tirreno-Adriatico has one of these long stages every year to get the Classics riders ready for the 300 kilometers of Milano-Sanremo and other Monuments in the coming weeks. The skies were overcast at the start but the atmosphere thickened and rain started coming down, as did the temperature at just 7C (45F). Lorenzo Conforti of VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè and Davide Bais of Polti-VisitMalta went on the attack from the start but Ineos started riding and caught the break with 145KM to go. Nothing much happened until 69KM to go when the bunch increased their speed going into the Intermediate Sprint at Castel Del Piano. Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek was not challenged, giving him more points in the Ciclamino points jersey. After the sprint, Dries De Bondt of Decathlon AG2R was getting cold and frustrated. He decided to attack with 67KM to go and was followed by Andrea Pietrobon of Polti-VisitMalta. The got a lead of 2 minutes 30 seconds as Bahrain Victorious picked up the chase. With 25KM to go and only 3KM before the Valico Di Colfiorito, a crash on the soaking wet roads took down Milan and a number of his Lidl-Trek teammates. The crash pushed the nerves up a notch and the speed went up until the bottom of the climb. De Bondt and Pietrobon still had 2 minutes 30 seconds with 22KM to go but Q36.5 were setting a hard pace in the peloton. Ineos took over as the gradient leveled off to around 3%. With just over 9KM to go, De Bondt was caught by the peloton and Pietrobon was just 15 seconds up the road. Ben Healy of EF-Education EasyPost went on the attack and drew out the other big GC favorites but they shut Healy down. A few more attacks went but the bunch was together with 7KM to go. Over the top with 4KM to go, there was a moment as everyone was looking around to see who was still in the group and Filippo Ganna of Ineos attacked. He was not immediately followed and got a gap of 5 seconds. Uno-X Mobility took up the chase and Ganna was caught just before 1KM to go by the bunch of around 70 riders. The sprint was every man for themselves. The road opened up on the right side through a gentle left turn and Andrea Vendrame of Decathlon AG2R shot through. Tom Pidcock of Q36.5 was on him but could not get around and after six and a half hours of racing, Vendrame came out the winner. Pidcock took second with Romain Grégoire of Groupama-FDJ in third on the stage.