Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) sprinted to victory on the abrupt, uphill finish of stage 3 at the CRO Race.
He held off Oscar Onley (Team DSM) for his first victory since the Tour de France.
Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) rolled across the steep pitch in Promešten in third, while his teammate Jonathan Milan was fifth and held on to the GC lead.
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With bonus seconds on the finish line, Vingegaard moved to second overall, just one second behind the Italian.
"It was a very difficult finish, it was a very bumpy road. It was hard to stand on the pedals, so you pretty much had to be seated. The legs were good today, so we worked for it all day and I'm pretty happy," Vingegaard said at the finish. "It's nice to win in the last part of the season."
The final 1.6km ascent to the finish proved decisive: a proper wall with pitches up to 15% and a section of narrow gravel in the final kilometre to the shrine of Madonna of Loreto. With 600 metres to go and midway on the white dirt road, Milan charged to the front. Then Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers) kicked ahead onto a cement surface at the steepest part. Milan returned the favour with another attack but was passed by Vingegaard, Onley and Mohoric. Vicenzo Albanese (EOLO-Kometa) managed to get by and finish fourth.
Onley took over as the KOM leader with a two-point advantage over Tobiasz Pawlak (HRE Mazowsze Serce Polski). Along with the leader's red jersey, Milan continued to hold the points and best young rider classifications.
The 157km stage began inland in Sinj, the heart of Dalmatia, and then rolled south to the Adriatic Sea for a turn north to hug the coastline to the finish in Primošten, the "pearl of the Adriatic". With 17km to go, a full circuit was punctuated by the second-category climb, followed by the cat 3 uphill finish in Promešten.
Bahrain Victorious pulled a lot at the front of the peloton while Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers were willing to take part as a group of seven riders created the break of the day early on, moving to a 2:30 advantage after the opening 20km.
The lead group included Manuele Tarozzi (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Viktor Potočki (Ljubljana Gusto Santic), Vedad Karič (Meridiana Kamen Team), Tilen Finkšt (Adria Mobil), Mathias Reutimann (Team Vorarlberg), Mark Christian (EOLO-Kometa) and Pawlak in the green mountains jersey.
They absorbed the third intermediate sprint point of the day at Šibenik, with 35km to ride and holding a 1:43 gap. Pawlak took the top points at the first intermediate sprint in Split, followed by Karič's take through Primošten and then Reutimman at Šibenik.
Gentle inclines over the next 25km led to the base of the first ascent of the KOM, where Pawlak and Potočki had aspirations, but the peloton gained impetus to make the catch for the finishing circuit.
The break began to fracture with just under 20km to go, Potočki and Pawlak having difficulty staying in touch and Tarozzi the last man standing as the impending catch by the peloton was made.
With 14.5km to go, a left-hand turn on the small road led across 3.4km at 5.4% across the KOM climb, led by Ineos Grenadiers, Bahrain Victorious and Jumbo-Visma tucked behind. Along the ascent, Uno-X sent Niklas Eg to the front with two others in a cameo appearance, but to no avail. The yellows of Uno-X and Jumbo-Visma drove the pace of the main group with 6km to race into a headwind.
Back on the main road with a hairpin turn on a descent and 2.7km to go, Milan remained near the front of the main group, with Vingegaard protected by his Jumbo-Visma team, who led him to the victory.
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