Oscar Gatto wins the third stage (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team ISD's Oscar Gatto took his first professional victory and gave his team its first win of the season in the Giro di Sardegna on Thursday. The 24-year-old from Treviso also took over the lead in the general classification in the process.
Gatto sprinted to the win on stage three from a breakaway of 22 riders which was missing the morning's leader, dual stage winner Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre). Gatto now leads the overall classification by four seconds ahead of Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) and World Champion Alessandro Ballan (Lampre).
"Winning is a beautiful feeling, one I almost forgot in the past two years as a professional" Gatto said. "Now I do not want to stop!"
The day's 173.2 kilometre stage featured a category two and a category one climb, but it was on a short uncategorized climb with 3km to go which the ISD team set a furious pace which dislodged Lorenzetto along with the majority of the peloton. While Gatto took his first victory ahead of Ballan and teammate Giovanni Visconti, the rest of the field struggled in over two minutes behind.
Gatto debuted in the pro ranks with the LPR team in 2006 as a stagiaire, and spent two winless seasons at Gerolsteiner before landing a contract with ISD.
"I want to say a special thanks to Luca Scinto, because he has always believed in me ... And I want to say thanks to all my teammates because they did an incredible job and I am happy to have achieved this victory. "
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