It was not sure that the 3rd stage of this Giro d'Italia 2013 would end in a sprint, due to the last climb being quite close to the finish line and having a quite technical descente, asking good downhill rider qualities. And indeed, we didn't see a bunch sprint at the finish today, because Luca Paolini arrived alone, with a 16 seconds gap on the main favourites of this 96th Tour of Italy!

The summary of the 3rd stage of the Tour of Italy 2013: Sorrento > Marina di Ascea

Right from the start of this stage in Sorrento there have been several attacks and after 2 kilometers the right one came, with Jackson Rodriguez (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia), Dirk Bellemakers (Lotto-Belisol), Bert de Backer (Team Argos-Shimano), Manuele Boaro (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), Willem Wauters (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) and Fabio Taborre (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia).

At the intermediate sprint in Salerno, after 71 kilometers in the race, the time gap of these 7 riders was oscillating around 6'40" and it even went up to a maximum of 7 minutes. This first sprint was won by Fabio Taborre, while in Agropoli, where the leading group arrived first at the second intermediate sprint, Bert de Backer crossed the line first.

At the foot of the climb towards San Mauro Cilento, which summit was at 69 kilometers from the finish, the breakaway still had a bit over 6 minutes on the peloton. In this climb, Bert de Backer drops from the leading group and this group loses some of its advance on the peloton since the peloton was still on a flat part at that time. However, even after the climb, the peloton has won back some of its delay since at about 50 kilometer from the finish, when Bert de Backer is taken back by the peloton, the gap is down to 4'26".

Fabio Taborre then decides to attack and leaves the 5 other riders of the leaving group behind him, with still a gap of a bit over 4 minutes on the peloton for them. Taborre's attack wasn't a "suicidal" one as we sometimes see at the start of a Grand Tour, since the Italian rider who will be in his birth area during the 7th stage of this Giro d'Italia 2013, created an interesting gap which was over a minute at the foot of the second climb of the stage, Sella di Catona.

When the Garmin-Sharp team gets in front of the peloton, and especially Ryder Hesjedal, last year's Giro winner, at 30 kilometers from the finish, the 1'40" gap melts like snow in the sun and after having taken back the 5 former breakaway riders, Fabio Taborre is also taken back at 25 kilometers from the goal.

While the Canadian rider of Team Garmin-Sharp briefly tried to go off alone, the peloton is again completely back together at kilometer 200, at 22 kilometers from the finish.

On top Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) takes the points for the King of the Mountains classification and that's where the very technical descent towards the finish in Marina di Ascea starts. Ryder Hesjedal again tries to attack and this time he gets away with Valerio Agnoli (Astana) and Luca Paolini (Katusha Team). When these 3 riders are taken back by a small group with the main favourites, Hesjedal tries again but without success. It's finally Luca Paolini who goes off in the last part of the descent and he stays ahead until the finish line where he takes the victory in this third stage.

The classifications after the 3rd stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013

The stage classification of the 3rd stage of the Tour of Italy 2013: Sorrento > Marina di Ascea

16 seconds after Paolini, Cadel Evans is the first to cross the line in a group of chasing riders with the main favourites. Here's the top 10 of this stage.

1/ Luca Paolini (Katusha) - 5h43'50"
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - +0'16"
3/ Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp)
4/ Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia)
5/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
6/ Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha)
7/ Pieter Weening (Orica-GreenEDGE)
8/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky)
9/ Benat Intxausti (Movistar Team)
10/ Robert Gesink (Blanco Pro Cycling Team)

Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) was also in this group of 17 riders and ended at the 17th place.

General classification

With his stage victory, Luca Paolini also takes the current first place in the general classification and he will thus wear the pink jersey at the start of the 4th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013 between Policastro Bussentino and Serra San Bruno.

Behind him we find Bradley Wiggins at 17 seconds, while Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) currently occupies the 5th place at 31 seconds.

1/ Luca Paolini (Katusha) - 9h04'32"
2/ Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) - +0'17"
3/ Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky)
4/ Benat Intxausti (Movistar Team) - +0'26"
5/ Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) - +0'31"

Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) is now 7th at 34 seconds.

Points and King of the Mountains classification

In the points classification, Luca Paolini (Katusha) is also leading, with 29 points he has one point more than Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

In the breakaway Willem Wauters (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) took some points for the King of the Mountains classification where the young Belgian rider is now leading, with 9 points, one more than Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) and 4 more than Manuele Boaro (Team Saxo-Tinkoff).

Best young riders classification

This stage has led to quite some movements in the best young riders classification which is now led by Fabio Aru (Astana).

1/ Fabio Aru (Astana) - 9h05'37"
2/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - +0'29"
3/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'36"
4/ Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +1'16"
5/ Diego Rosa (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - +1'19"

A video summary of the stage

Here you can find a video summary of this stage:

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Giro d Italia | Giro d'Italia 2013

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