Giro d'Italia: Van der Hoorn takes Intermarché's first win on stage 3

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Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Materiaux) was the surprise winner of the third stage of the Giro d'Italia, denying the sprinters to hold on for a solo victory having ridden out in front all day.

The win is easily the biggest of his career, and also a huge moment for his team, for whom this is the first win of the season since being promoted to the World Tour.

"I can't believe it," said a beaming Van der Hoorn once he'd got his breath back. "I just wanted to go in the break and be aggressive all Giro. It was really difficult to get to the front and win a stage, or get to the finish line with the group."

Davide Cimolai (Israel Start-Up Nation) won the sprint from a reduced bunch for second ahead of Peter Sagan, whose Bora-Hansgrohe team had dropped many of the top sprinters on the stage's climbs.

Despite doing so much work to drop their rivals Bora-Hansgrohe were unable to finish off the job by catching Van der Hoorn, who was the sole survivor of an eight-man group who went clear at the start of the stage.

After this breakaway had already been reduced to five after the earlier climbing, Van der Hoorn went clear with Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) on an uncategorised but steep rise 17km from the finish. But it was only after he attacked Pellaud with 9km to go, and suddenly increased his advantage over the chasing peloton from 40 seconds to one minute, that he looked like he might actually have a very real chance of surviving.

At the time attacking his breakaway partner seemed like a foolish move, given how much harder it is to ride solo without assistance after having already done so much work during the stage, but Van der Hoorn was remarkably strong and held off until the finish to win with an advantage of four seconds.

Cimolai, Sagan and fourth-place finisher Elia Viviani (Cofidis) will be bitterly disappointed at missing out on the stage win, having worked so hard to remain in the bunch after a ferocious pace set by Bora-Hansgrohe on the stage's three categorised climbs saw many of the top sprinters to be dropped, including yesterday's winner Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix), Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos)

All the GC favourites remained in the peloton, as well as Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), who retains the pink jersey.

How it unfolded

The peloton set off from Biella having to face the stress of wet roads in what were initially bleak, grey conditions.

They were at least spared a stressful start to the stage, as a seven-man group escaped up the road with little fuss.

In that break was Vincenzo Albanese, who was in the blue jersey having gained King of the Mountains points yesterday, along with his EOLO-Kometa teammate Samuele Rivi. They were joined by Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Materiaux), Lars van den Berg (Groupama-FDJ), Samuele Zoccarato (Bardiani-CSF-Faizane), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R Citroën) and last year's winner of the intermediate sprint classification Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec)

After valiantly chasing alone for over 10km, Pellaud's 18-year-old teammate Andrii Ponomar also joined the escapees, forming the final 8-man group that would spend most of the stage out front.

They were granted a gap of over six minutes, before Bora-Hansgrohe and Alpecin-Fenix upped the pace for their sprinters Peter Sagan and Tim Merlier.

As the weather brightened up and the riders shed their rain jackets, the gap began steadily coming down, and had been reduced to almost 3-30 by the day's intermediate sprint 73km from the finish.

The size of the break meant they took all of the maglia ciclamino points available at the intermediate sprint (with Pellaud outsprinting Zoccarato for the maximum twelve points), but back in the peloton Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka-Assos) didn't seem to realise this, as he sprinted to the line anyway.

The Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec duo in the break tried to challenge Albanese's lead in the King of the Mountains classification ahead of the first climb of the day, but was unsuccessful; Albanese's teammate Rivi was able to neutralise an attack from Ponomar just prior to the climb, then Albanese managed to mark an attack from Pellaud before outsprinting him at the line.

Back in the peloton, Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) drifted towards the back as Bora-Hansgrohe set a steady pace, but was not dropped as the group remained intact. There were splits on the descent, exacerbated by a crash involving around half a dozen riders, but the pace after was slow enough for the peloton to reform.

Bora-Hansgrohe caused much more damage on the second climb, as sprinters Tim Merlier, Dylan Groenewegen, David Dekker (both Jumbo-Visma) and Caleb Ewan were all dropped and taken out of contention.

They continued to push on on the third and final categorised climb, where they managed to at last distance Giacomo Nizzolo, who had only just about managed to hang on on the last climb.

Back in the break, Albanese further extended his lead in the mountain classification by sprinting for first over the second climb and third on the final climb. But by the top of the latter, the tempo set by Bora-Hansgrohe had significantly reduced their lead over the peloton to less than 1-30.

These climbs had seen the leading group reduced to just five after Rivi, Ponomar and Gougeard were dropped, and shrunk further when Pellaud attacked with Zoccarato and Van der Hoorn on the uncategorised climb 17km from the finish, with Zoccarato being dropped near the top.

That climb was also the launchpad for attacks in the peloton from Tony Gallopin (AG2R Citroën) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), who held a lead of a couple of seconds by the top.

They managed to catch Zoccarato, but Van der Horn and Pellaud remained elusive, as they continued to ride well together. 

With 9km left to ride, and their advantage over the peloton still at 40 seconds, Van der Hoorn attacked Pellaud That might have seemed like a questionable decision, but Van der Hoorn increased his lead on the peloton to a minute.

Suddenly it seemed he had a very real chance of making it to the finish. Ciccone and Gallopin continued to chase and managed to drop Zoccarato, while UAE Team Emirates and Cofidis were now part of the desperate pace in the peloton to bring back the attackers, but still, Van der Hoorn held on.

Their work did see the gap start to tumble, and Ciccone and Gallopin were caught 2km from the finish, but Van der Hoorn still had a chance with a lead of 20 seconds.

By this point, he was gasping for breath and rocking side to side, but as he entered the finish straight with the peloton still visibly adrift, it was clear that he had pulled off a miraculous victory.