Giro di Sicilia: Fran Miholjević wins stage 3

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Fran Miholjević (CT Friuli ASD) won stage 3 of the Giro di Sicilia with a solo ride in the final 10 kilometres to Piazza Armerina in Caltagirone. With the extra time over the chasing peloton, the 19-year-old Croatian shook his head in disbelief as he took a double win, overtaking Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) for the overall race lead.

Pier-André Coté (Human Powered Health) finished second in the bunch sprint while Filippo Fiorelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) took third place.

It was the first breakthrough victory for Miholjević, who had a win earlier this season at a one-day race in his home country. His GC lead puts him 18 seconds in front of Caruso, with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Qazaqstan) in third another four seconds down, both finishing 41 seconds behind the youngster in the select group of 36 riders.

Miholjević was part of the original breakaway of six riders who charged to the front after the opening 50km were completed. He also took control of the best young rider classification with the stage victory. Fiorelli earned the sprint classification lead and Stefano Gandin (Team Corrate) continued at the top of the mountains classification.

“I gave it my all. It’s a sign that all the hard work I did has paid off. It’s life changing, but I still can’t believe it,” said Miholjević at the finish.

“I still don't believe what happened. I started with the intention of going on the run especially to show the sponsors live on TV but step by step we saw that the group was unable to recover. I started to believe it when I got to 50 meters and it was beautiful. I will try to keep the jersey but it will be very difficult, in the meantime I have won this extraordinary victory.”

The finale on Friday will conclude with the 140km stage 4 and a showdown at Etna, the final 39km all uphill to the ski resort area at Piano Provenzana.

How it unfolded

The third of four days of racing began along the coast in Realmonte with nothing flat on the menu of the 171km stage, 2,530 metres of rolling and continuous climbs to the inland finish at Piazza Armerina.

A group of six riders struck out at the front of the race and gained four minutes on the peloton after the opening 55km: Miholjević (CT Friuli), who posed the most danger to Caruso as he was placed 35 seconds behind the GC lead, Alessandro Iacchi (Team Qhubeka), Federico Burchio (Work Service Vitalcare Vega), Martin Svrcek (Biesse-Carrera), Veljko Stojnic (Team Corratec) and Matteo Furlan (D’Amico-UM Tools).

Sunny skies and winds did little to change the race for the next 60km, but then Furlan was dropped and absorbed by the peloton, leaving a quintet of riders holding an advantage of a little more than three minutes.

The WorldTour teams and the Italian national team did not seem particularly interested in chasing the fugitives. A few teams like Continental Giotti Victoria, Mg.k Vis and US-based Human Powered Health took turns at the front to close the gap.

With 20km to go, the five riders in break saw their advantage begin to dwindle to 2:09. The only categorised climb was well in the rear view mirror, but the hills were unrelenting. Soon Svrcek was dropped.

Three riders of the Italian national team attacked with 10km to go in an attempt to surprise Caruso. It caused the peloton to split behind in crosswinds and forced the tempo to increase, but all the favourites remained together including Nibali glued to the wheel of Caruso.

Meanwhile, the youngster Miholjević took off alone at the front. As the route continued to climb towards the finish with a short stretch that reached a gradient of 9 per cent, he had over one minute on his former breakaway companions and under 8km to go.

Once over the final ascent of the day, the Croatian put his head down and continued his push to the finish.