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Tommaso Dati (Team Ukyo) scored the victory on stage 3 of Settimana Coppi e Bartali, beating Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to the line in a reduced bunch sprint finish.
Like stage 2 winner Filippo D'Aiuto (General Store-Essegibi-Curia), the victory was Dati's first professional triumph.
A day after his big win, D'Aiuto ceded the race lead, losing contact on the only climb of the 175.5km stage. Schmid, who was previously in second place 13 seconds down on D'Aiuto, took over the race lead.
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Early in the 175.5km stage, the break of the day went clear following an attack from Luca Colnaghi (Bardiani CSF-7 Saber), Giosuè Epis (Petrolike) and Mirko Bozzola (SC Padovani-Polo-Cherry Bank).
The trio of Italians were joined by Jesper Stiansen (Tudor U23), Nicholas Travella (Biesse-Carrera-Premac), Will Harding (Mg.K Vis-Construzione e Ambiente) and Ben Granger (Solution Tech-Nippo-Rali) to make it seven out front.
The breakaway raced away to a maximum advantage of three minutes during the largely flat stage. However, things would break up with 30km to go, shortly before the day's only climb, the Passo Tre Termini (8.4km at 5.7%).
There, Grainger and Stiansen went on the attack, leaving the remainder of the break behind to be caught by the peloton.
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Stiansen rode on alone to drop Grainger on the way up the climb, though with Ineos Grenadiers working behind, the Norwegian wouldn't last much longer out front, and he was caught before the summit.
The peloton was largely intact over the top and down the descent, all prepared for the expected bunch sprint at the end of the flat 10km run to the finish line.
Race leader D'Aiuto wasn't among the peloton for the finish, having been dropped on the climb. In his absence, a reduced bunch contested the win, with Dati coming out on top.
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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