Giro D'Italia 2015: Stage 3 Results, Overall Standings and Highlights
Michael Matthews sealed a second win in three races for Orica-GreenEdge in Stage 3 of the 2015 Giro d'Italia with a late sprint in Sestri Levante.
The Australian crossed the line ahead of Fabio Felline and Philippe Gilbert in a powerful, perfectly timed finish that saw him pass the Trek Factory Racing rider with 150 metres to go to win by a length.
The Giro's official Twitter account shared the moment:
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Here are the results from Stage 3:
| 1 | Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica GreenEdge | 3:33:53 |
| 2 | Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing | TBC |
| 3 | Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC Racing Team | TBC |
| 4 | Sergey Lagutin (Rus) Team Katusha | TBC |
| 5 | Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana Pro Team | TBC |
| 6 | Luca Paolini (Ita) Team Katusha | TBC |
| 7 | Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Southeast Pro Cycling | TBC |
| 8 | Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Bardiani CSF | TBC |
| 9 | Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team | TBC |
| 10 | Yonathan Monsalve (Ven) Southeast Pro Cycling | TBC |
BeIN Sports confirmed the standings after the stage on Monday:
The race was almost marred by a sickening crash involving Italian rider Domenico Pozzovivo, who was carried away motionless on a stretcher after hitting the ground head first with 40 kilometres to go.
Thankfully, Pozzovivo is "conscious and lucid," as confirmed by his team AG2R-La Mondiale and the BBC's Matt Slater on Twitter (h/t Reuters, via The Guardian):
Matthews' win sees Orica-GreenEdge's magnificent start to the race continue unabated.
Though Orica were triumphant, it was Tinkoff-Saxo who controlled the peloton for much of Stage 3, per Daniel Benson of CyclingNews.
The Russian team started with intent, moving to the head of the race as part of a large breakaway group in the opening kilometres.
However, with the group proving too large for the riders to be able to work together, the break was unable to generate a gap of any significance over the rolling landscape.
The break was only just over a minute ahead as they reached the Barbagelata, a climb with a seven-percent gradient.
The climb reduced the break to less than 12 riders and a gap of just 18 seconds before Pavel Kochetkov moved clear to claim the mountain jersey.
As the race wore on, Orica grew in confidence as they made their way toward the front of the peloton alongside Alberto Contador and his team-mates.
Despite late challenges from Kochetkov and Simon Clarke, Matthews was led expertly by Stage 1-winner Simon Gerrans to take the momentous win for Orica.
Per Benson, Matthews said:
"It's been a dream come true so far for this Giro d’Italia. We planned to get the team time trial win and this was another big goal for us. We re-conned it last week and we knew what to expect so from then on we tried to do as best as we could and we pulled it off.
It went right from the very start. A big breakaway went right away and we had two of our key climbers in the breakaway. That took a lot of pressure off the guys in the peloton so we could sit back and try to save as much energy as possible for the final. I had a really good rider in Simon Gerrans leading me out. When I saw this it was really special and I knew from there I just had to finish it off for the team.
"
The race was simply a technical masterclass from the Australian outfit, and Orica showed tremendous discipline in executing their plan at exactly the right moment.
As Orica have shown, riding reconnaissance over the route is hugely beneficial, and the team will no doubt be in contention in the difficult Stage 4.
Tinkoff-Saxo have started brightly as well and shown a phenomenal work rate so far in the Giro, so don't rule out Contador and Co. having a strong ride on Tuesday.
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