CRO Race stage 3: Brandon McNulty makes long-distance solo move to victory and overall lead

Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) scored a solo breakaway win and took over the race lead on a weather-abridged stage 3 of the CRO Tour.

The US time trial champion made his winning move 51km from the finish of the stage from Novi Vinodolski to Opatija, which saw the start moved and 64.5km cut from its length due to strong winds.

He quickly caught and passed Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers) who had attacked a few kilometres earlier, before leaving the German behind with 42km to run. McNulty raced through the heavy rain, building his advantage over the chasing peloton to over a minute and handing himself a cushion for the final run-in.

Behind him, Ineos Grenadiers and Bahrain Victorious were among the teams leading the chase, though he hit the closing circuit retaining a gap of 40 seconds over the much-reduced chasing group.

Ineos continued to lead the nine-man group behind McNulty. However, despite making some headway, the chasers couldn't fully cut down the lead, leaving him to celebrate his eighth victory of the season.

Times were taken at the entrance to the finishing circuit, meaning that McNulty finished the day credited with a time 26 seconds up on teammate Igor Arrieta in the chase. That puts him in the overall lead and the driving seat to win the six-day race.

Tobias Lund Andresen (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) finished in third and fourth place, leading home a small chase group just behind Arrieta.

McNulty now leads the race overall by 30 seconds from Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-Kometa). Andresen, Arrieta and Cyrus Monk (Q36.5) lie in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, all at 38 seconds down.

Friday sees the peloton tackle the CRO Race's toughest stage, a 160 kilometre mountainous run between Krk and a summit finish at Labin.

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