Dušan Rajović (Solution Tech NIPPO Rali) claimed victory on stage 3 of the Giro di Sardegna, pipping the previous day's winner, Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe Rookies) to the line after a photo finish.
Donati hit the front in Tortoli after great work from his team and latching onto the Polti-VisitMalta lead-out, but Rajović was coming with a lot of speed from behind and had enough in the legs to beat the Italian, thanks to his bike throw.
Manuel Peñalver (Polti-VisitMalta) finished third on the stage, as one of only two riders not from Italy in the top 10, the other being former Serbian champion Rajović.
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"It was a nice day for me, I can say, first of all, thanks to my team – they worked really well from the start to control things, and I'm super happy that I started the season with a win, especially in this special place," said Rajović.
"This win is for my girlfriend, because I was out of my house a lot of the time these past two years, so I say thank you, and this victory is for her. This year the goal is to win more than last year, so we'll see how it's going to go."
Stage 1 winner, Nicolò Garibbo (UKYO), maintained his lead in the general classification ahead of Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-QuickStep), with the hardest stage to come tomorrow and two stages still to race.
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