Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla) won stage three in a reduced bunch sprint ahead of Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Matthews finished off the job after his Jayco-AlUla took it upon themselves to shape the race. They’re fierce pace set on two climbs in the final 40km saw many sprinters jettisoned out of the peloton, including yesterday’s winner Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) and Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan).
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) finished safely in the bunch, and slightly extended his lead at the top of the general classification by outsprinting Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) for three bonus seconds in an intermediate sprint 10km from the finish.
For Matthews, it was a first victory in what has been a difficult season for him so far.He was forced to miss Milan-Sanremo after a Covid positive, and crashed out of the Tour of Flanders.
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“Honestly, I’m just speechless. What I’ve been through these last few months, to now come back with a victory for the team. We rode all day today, and they were fully committed for me to win the stage. I don’t have words at the moment. It’s been such a rollercoaster this year, and now we’re on stage three already with a stage win. It’s more than I could ever dream of."
Jayco-AlUla clearly had a plan to drop as many sprinters as possible by setting a fierce pace on the last two climbs, and they succeeded in doing so.Even Mads Pedersen, one of the few sprinters who can claim to be as good […]
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