Paul Magnier (Soudal-QuickStep) captured his second sprint win in three days at the Giro d'Italia, triumphing in Sofia in a three-way photo finish at the end of the race's final day in Bulgaria.
The Frenchman, clad in the maglia ciclamino of points leader, jumped from the wheel of Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in the final 150 metres to just about edge ahead and claim victory. Four-time Giro stage winner Milan had launched too early, 250 metres from the line, and ended up in second place. Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet Rose Rockets) jumped out of the wheel to grab third place at the death.
How it unfolded
Stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia marked the race's final day in Bulgaria, taking the peloton on a 175km run from the nation's second city of Plovdiv to its capital, Sofia.
Along the way, the riders would face just one categorised climb, the first second-category test of the race, Borovets Pass (9.2km at 5.3%), before heading back downhill to Sofia for an expected sprint finish.
For the third day in a row, Polti-VisitMalta sent two riders up the road from the very start. Mountains classification leader Diego Pablo Sevilla – also leading the intermediate sprint and fuga competitions – was there once again to bolster his lead in all three standings, while Alessandro Tonelli became his third different companion of the race so far.
The Italian ProTeam have already justified their wildcard invite, and fellow invitees Bardiani CSF-Saber 7 also announced their presence at the race, placing Manuele Tarozzi in the break.
The trio raced to an advantage of almost four minutes in the early kilometres of the stage before a mixture of teams, including Soudal-QuickStep, XDS-Astana, and Unibet Rose Rockets, took responsibility for pacemaking at the head of the peloton and took the gap down to three minutes.
The situation remained the same on the gradual uphill run to the first intermediate sprint of the day at Dolna Banja after 86km of racing. Tarozzi led the way over the sprint, while back in the peloton, Jonathan Milan snapped up two points in fourth place.
The climb to Borovets Pass followed shortly afterwards, and the breakaway trio continued with a slightly reduced 2:30 lead. Blue jersey Sevilla led the race over the top for 18 points, taking his total to 42 for the race, well ahead of Tarozzi's 12 in second place.
XDS-Astana's Cristian Scaroni, meanwhile, jumped out of the peloton to take four points, possibly signalling his intention for the Giro. Out of the rear of the peloton, an ill Arnaud De Lie (Lotto-Intermarché) was dropped by over a minute on the way up as two teammates – Joshua Giddings and Jonas Rutsch – stayed back to help him.
A quick descent off the climb took the riders into the final 50km as the peloton, now with Lidl-Trek helping out at the front and with De Lie back in the fold, closed to within a minute of the break.
The long, slightly downhill run towards Sofia lay ahead, though little had changed in the situation on the run-in. Sevilla, Tonelli, and Tarozzi continued out front with an ever decreasing lead. That gap went under 30 seconds for the first time as they reached the final 15km, while 2km later, Tarozzi edged out Sevilla at the Red Bull Kilometre.
Behind them, the sprint teams, including Lidl-Trek and Unibet Rose Rockets, were organising at the head of the peloton as the race hit Sofia and the wide, straight highway that took up much of the final 10km. They held 20 seconds at the 5km mark and kept on battling, though their time was numbered.
The break lasted into the final kilometre, but they wouldn't quite make it to the finish line and were caught with around 500 metres left to run. Lidl and Unibet took over, ready to launch their sprinters to the finish line.
It was Milan who hit the front first, going at 250 to go with Magnier right in his wheel and Groenewegen third in line. After rounding the final gentle bend, Milan looked to slightly lose some momentum, leaving Magnier to pull alongside him and then push ahead in the closing metres.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
