Giro D'Italia 2016: Stage 3 Results, Updated Standings and Highlights
Etixx-Quick-Step's Marcel Kittel took the stage win and the pink jersey during Sunday's 2016 Giro d'Italia action, winning his second stage in another bunch sprint.
The German fought off the challenge from Team Sky's Elia Viviani, using his explosive speed to stop the Italian from overtaking him after he caught his wheel.
Here’s a look at the results from Stage 3, courtesy of Sky Sports Cycling:
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The general classification:
The point standings and mountain classification will be added when the results are made official.
Sunday’s stage saw the peloton return to Arnhem for another flat day expected to result in a bunch sprint and not shake up the general classification too much.
Unsurprisingly, the day started with an early break, and given the unusually hot temperatures in the Netherlands, the peloton was happy to take it slow and give the four leaders a major lead.
Among the four were Maarten Tjallingii of LottoNL-Jumbo and Giacomo Berlato of Nippo-Vini Fantini, who were also part of the break on Saturday. The two were joined by Dimension Data's Johann Van Zyl and Julen Amezqueta Moreno of Southeast-Venezuela, and they built a lead of over eight minutes, but at the midway point of the stage, headwinds started to kick in.
The wind played in favour of the peloton and caused a handful of major ruptures, with several top riders forced to waste energy to return to the peloton. It also led to the first major crash of this year’s Giro, and its first retirement.
AG2R's Jean Christophe Peraud, who finished the 2014 Tour de France in second place, made contact with a falling team-mate and crashed hard, and while he was able to stand up under his own strength, it quickly became clear his Giro was over.
Eurosport’s Felix Lowe felt bad for the veteran:
A few more crashes followed, and the headwinds made it difficult for the chasing riders to return to the peloton, with Lotto Soudal pushing the tempo. At the front, Tjallingii finished ahead of Berlato in the day’s only climb, taking over as leader in the mountain classification in the process.
The four leaders held a two-minute advantage entering Arnhem, where two local laps of 14 km were still on the schedule. In the peloton, the GC riders moved to the front to avoid crashes in the streets of Arnhem, and that gave the leaders the chance to keep building their lead.
Van Zyl tried his luck on his own, just as another crash in the peloton halted its chase, with several FDJ riders going down. The resulting confusion saw the top sprinters lose sight of their team-mates, with Van Zyl increasing his lead.
The South African bravely defended his lead but was caught close to the finish line, and Kittel once again proved the fastest of the sprinters, dominating his rivals to a second straight win.
Per Cycling News, the German praised his team-mates for their hard work:
"I’m very happy and at first I didn’t realise I’d also taken pink. I’m super proud of this amazing team.
The boys worked so hard to bring the break back. I think we had team of the day. It’s great to win a second stage. Now we’ve got some work to defend the pink jersey when we get to Italy but it’s the best thing that could happen to us.
I have a great team and two super strong pilots in Matteo Trentin and Fabio Sabatini. They did a great job to put me in position, while the other guys kept us out of the wind all day. Without all of them, the win would not be possible.
"
Kittel now leads the general classification by nine seconds, ahead of Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin, who won the opening stage. The Etixx-Quick-Step man also leads the points classification and is the favourite to win this year's red jersey.
The peloton will travel to Italy during Monday’s rest day, as the rolling roads of Calabria await. Tuesday’s ride to Praia a Mare features a handful of bumps and minor climbs in the finale that shouldn’t trouble the top riders but might lead to a successful breakaway.
The profile for Wednesday’s race looks similar, and riders better not go all out to win the stage, as the first real mountain stage will be contested on Thursday.
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