Cucinotta strikes in Mino

Claudio Cucinotta made it two wins in a row for De Rosa-Stac Plastic as he claimed sprint win on stage three of the Tour of Japan. The Italian finished ahead of Zak Dempster (Rapha Condor-Sharp) and Takashi Miyazawa (Team Nippo).

Overall race leader Michael Matthews (Jayco-Skins) finished fourth and extended his tenure in the leader's jersey by at least another day. Matthews admitted afterwards he'd made a tactical error in the finale.

"The course wasn't too bad but my legs were a bit sore from yesterday's effort when I went pretty hard to try for the stage win so today really hurt me," said Matthews on the Jayco-Skins website. "I got over the last climb with the front group and my legs were feeling alright with the adrenalin rush of being up the front and ready to have a kick but I followed the wrong wheel in the sprint.

He added that the 160.7km stage had been a tough test after the opening two days of racing in Japan. "I also think I was a bit dehydrated today because even though it was a bit cloudy I was sweating a lot and I probably didn't drink enough," he added. "I'll know for next time."
Matthews remains nine seconds ahead of stage two winner Cristiano Salerno (De Rosa-Stac Plastic), with Darren Lapthorne (Rapha Condor-Sharp) in third overall, five seconds further back.

Earlier, Jayco-Skins had resigned themselves to conceding the overall lead after a threatening break had gone away. However, the absence of a Kazakhstani rider in the escape group meant the Kazakhstan national team saw them bring the race back together for the eventual bunch finish.

"When the break went we had a little talk at the back of the bunch. We already knew we weren't going to keep the jersey for the whole tour so we agreed we wouldn't smash ourselves to try and keep it today," said Matthews. "We hoped another team would bring it back and the Kazakhstani guys did the job which was lucky for us."