Adriatica Ionica Race: Sosa wins stage 3 on summit of Passo Giau

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Ivan Ramiro Sosa (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) won the queen stage 3 at the Adriatica Ionica Race on Friday with a solo victory to the summit of the hors categorie Passo Giau. The Colombian attacked a select group in the closing kilometres to take the win ahead of Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF). Ben Hermans ( Israel Cycling Academy) was third.

Sosa's dominating win puts him in the lead of the overall race ahead of Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates) and Ciccone, ahead of stage 4's 226km race from San Vito di Cadore to Grado on Saturday.

"I am very happy to have triumphed over this climb," Sosa said. "Ciccone kept attacking, I waited and I tried to counterattack, and I managed to get a good margin of separation. In the next two stages, I want to defend the leader's jersey. Tomorrow's stage is long, but I have the support of the whole team."

Stage 3 at the Adriatica Ionica Race offered the peloton a 160.7km race that started in Mussolente, and climbed two category 1 ascents; Passo Rolle (95km) and Passo Valles (108km) before finishing on the summit of hors categorie Passo Giau.

A breakaway emerged that included Giovanni Pedretti and Enrico Logica (both Biesse Carrera Gavardo ), Antonio Di Sante (Sangemini-MG.Kvis), Jhonatan Narvaez (Quick-Step Floors) and Floris Gerts (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) and Marco Canola (Nippo-Vini Fantini).

Pedretti took full points at the sprint in Lamon, 48km into the race, ahead of Di Sante and Gerts. He again took the points at the top of the first KOM over Rolle followed by Di Sante, Logica, Narvaez and Canola.

At the 98km mark, the front group had reshuffled over the second KOM Valles, as riders from the main field bridged across to include Yukiya Arashiro (Bahrain-Merida), Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo), Marco Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli), and Michele Gazzara (Sangemini-MG.Kvis) and Marco Canola (Nippo-Vini).

The main group behind were only 36 seconds back, when Felline launched his own attack on the ascent and he was followed by Narvaez and Arashiro. But at the top, Felline crossed the KOM line alone, trailed by Frapporti, who was 21 seconds back, while Gerts, Petilli and then Darwin Atapuma (UAE Team Emirates) crested the top 48 seconds later.

With 40km to go, and the most significant climb of the day still looming, Felline increased his solo lead to over half a minute ahead of the chasing Frapporti, with the main field only 58 seconds in arrears. However, 10km later the leading pair made contact with one another and worked together to push their lead out to over a minute.

Felline, in pursuit of the stage win, again distanced himself from Frapporti with 20km to go. However, both riders were eventually reeled back in as they hit the base of the final hors categorie ascent to Giau, a climb that started out at 15% grade but tapered off to average 9% over 8.3 kilometres.

Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CSF) was the first to launch an attack on the lower, steeper slopes, but he was pulled back in by a select group of 20 riders. From there, six riders emerged; Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates), Ciccone, Sosa, Hermans, Ildar Arslanov (Gazprom-Rusvelo), and Pieter Weening (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij).

Sosa made a bid for the stage win but was followed closely by Ravasi and Arslanov, and the trio were later joined by Ciccone. Not giving up, Sosa made a second attack, but Ciccone latched on, and the pair gained nine seconds on their competitors Ravasi and Arslanov.

Sosa made his third and final winning move with just over one kilometre to go, opening a gap of 22 seconds on Ciccone, who was unable to close it down and settled for second.

This podcast is brought to you in association with Prendas Ciclismo, Pinarello, and Floyds of Leadville. You can find the provisional start list for the 2018 Tour de France, here.

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