CRO Race 2025 Stage 3

October 2, 2025 The profile for Stage 3 is a bit odd but it should still result in a relatively large group coming to the finish together. The riders roll out of Gospić around 600M above sea level and stay up on a plateau through two intermediate sprints in Perušić and Otočac. A 16KM climb to Sašina follows but it averages just 2.5% and would be barely noticeable over such a distance. From the top, the riders will enjoy a 9KM descent into Novi Vinodolski on the sea side for the third and final intermediate sprint with 50KM remaining of the 150KM stage. It's not plain sailing for the sprinters however because they have to get over a 5KM, 4.4% rise to Bribir, a 2.7KM 3.6% uncategorized climb as well as an 800M kicker at 6% in Škrljevo just 11KM before the finish in Rijeka, home of the largest port in Croatia. Yesterday's wind blew in colder air which saw riders in jackets and arm warmers at the start. Patryk Stosz of Voster-ATS, Martin Voltr of ATT Investments, Casper van der Woude of Metec-SOLARWATT, Baptiste Poulard of Arkéa-B&B Hotels, and Mark Stewart of Solution Tech-Vini Fantini got away and with 75KM to go, they had 2 minutes 40 seconds. Josef Černý of Soudal Quickstep was riding on the front and didn't have any help for a long time given the team's sprint dominance to this point. At the top of Sašina, van der Woude took maximum points and started the descent back down to the coast. The descent was technical and the road surface was quite rough but the break got to the bottom together. The situation remained largely unchanged as van der Woude crested the climb to Bribir first at 36KM to go, still with a gap of 2 minutes. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe started riding with 26KM to go but the gap was more than manageable at 1 minute 15 seconds. At 17KM to go, Bahrain Victorious came to the front with their entire team and significantly increased the pace and Voltr was the last member of the break to be caught at 12KM to go. Bahrain Victorious continued their infernal pace up to Škrljevo which was enough to split the peloton in half but all of the main sprint favorites were present at the top. Inside of 3KM to go, Ineos, Soudal Quickstep, Israel-Premier Tech, and Jayco AlUla were all battling for the same spot at the front but the road was wide which made it very difficult for any one team to hold their position. Ineos won a right corner at 1,500M and had four men in front of Ben Turner. Ineos bossed the front through the final left at 300M and unleashed Turner at 175M. Paul Magnier of Soudal Quickstep was on the Brit's wheel and was able to accelerate out of the slip stream. Magnier pulled level with Turner and the pair threw their bikes at the line. Neither knew who had won but a minute later, Magnier was declared the winner, his third victory in a row. Oded Kogut of Israel-Premier Tech followed in for third place. Magnier leads the GC by 20 seconds over Turner courtesy of the bonus seconds but the next two stages will shake things up and will determine the overall winner for the week.