Gaviria wins Giro d'Italia stage 3 as Viviani relegated in sprint

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Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was the first across the line in Orbetello, but victory on stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia went to Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) after the Italian champion was relegated for an irregular sprint.

Viviani, who won four stages and the points classification at last year’s Giro, opened his sprint from the wheel of stage 2 winner Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe), moving out to the left hand side of the road and into the path of Matteo Moschetti (Trek-Segafredo), who had to stop pedalling.

The QuickStep sprinter pointed to his all-new Italian champion’s tricolore jersey after crossing the line but the celebrations didn’t last long. His movement raised flags with the race jusry, who reviewed the footage and decided on relegation.

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That meant Gaviria, who shook Viviani’s hand after finishing in second place, was awarded the victory, his first on his return to the Giro after winning four stages on his Grand Tour debut in 2017. Second place went to Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), and third to Ackermann, who had opened the sprint only to find himself in the stiff headwind far too early.

The wind combined with a series of tight corners to create a messy run-in across the Orbetello lagoon, at the end of a long 220-kilometre stage that had its fair share of tension as the race headed down the Tuscan coast. A chicane in the final 500 metres robbed the sprinters of their speed and forced them to wind back up again. Viviani’s lead-out man Fabio Sabatini surged to the front, and it looked like they’d played it perfectly when Ackermann, in second position, was forced into the headwind with 150 metres to go.

Viviani waited in the wheel for a few moments before accelerating to the left, while Gaviria came powering through in the middle of the road but appeared to have come from too far back. The pair embraced beyond the finish line but the emotions would soon be flipped, with the smile and colour draining from Viviani’s face when he was informed of the jury’s decision.

“I'm sorry this has happened because Elia is always correct in the sprints and didn't really do anything wrong today,” said Gaviria. “For me, he won the stage today. If you watch the replay, you can see he didn't do it on purpose, he didn't look back. He was trying to just do his sprint.

"It was a severe decision. I like to win fair and square out on the road and today I was beaten by Elia. He's a great rider and I'm sorry for him.”

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) finished safely in the peloton to retain his overall lead, though the rising tension in the closing kilometres did see some GC damage, namely to Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos) and Richard Carapaz (Movistar). The Ineos co-leader, who had crashed earlier in the day, was caught up in a crash at a pinch point with five kilometres to go and was unable to regain contact, crossing the line 1:30 down on the rest of the field. Carapaz, meanwhile, had suffered a mechanical a little earlier on and shipped 46 seconds.

How it unfolded

Stage 3 was one of five in the first portion of the 2019 Giro d’Italia to exceed 200 kilometres, and was uneventful for the first half before the tension slowly crept up in a peloton that was wary of the wind that was blowing near the Tuscan coast.

With just one categorised climb – the category-four Poggio l’Apparita with 40km to go – few saw a realistic chance of breakaway success and in the end just one lone rider was left to fight the good fight. Sho Hatsuyama of Nippo-Vini Fantini left the peloton with around 15 kilometres on the clock and built a lead of seven minutes with just himself for company.

The gap started to come down just before the half-way mark, as Thomas De Gendt did the lion’s share of the pace-making for Lotto Soudal sprinter Caleb Ewan. With 85km to go, the Belgian was replaced on the front by Trek-Segafredo, who moved up through the gears. The gap started to plummet, and with 75km to go Hatsuyama was caught and the race was back together. The pace remained high thereafter, with team leaders well towards the front as the nervy peloton was never too far from splitting.

An intermediate sprint with 50km to go saw the roads twist and turn through Rosseto. As Démare – the only sprinter to take a real interest - claimed maximum points, Geoghegan Hart crashed on his right hand side, though he made his way back to the bunch without fuss. At the top of the Poggio l’Apparita, blue jersey wearer Giulio Ciccone clipped away to extend his lead in the mountains classification – perhaps showing why his Trek-Segafredo team had been on the front earlier.

The run-in took the riders down to the coast and over two narrow strips of land that form the Orbetello lagoon. The wind was on everyone’s minds, and sprint teams and GC teams jostled for position. Bad luck struck for Carapaz with 9km to go, and although he received a swift bike change and had teammates to help him back, he was unable to avoid losing 46 seconds.

While Roglič’s Jumbo-Visma, Vincenzo Nibali’s Bahrain-Merida, and Simon Yates’ Mitchelton-Scott teams were all prominent, Team Ineos were less so, and suffered a big blow when Geoghegan Hart was caught up in a crash in the middle of the bunch. He didn’t look to have hit the deck but was held up and, with the peloton in full flow, lost 1:28 and fell from seventh overall to 57th.

It was FDJ and Deceuninck-Quick Step who took it up in the final few kilometres, trading positions on the front. Bob Jungels led under the flamme rouge before FDJ came back with two men in front of Dèmare, while Dimension Data also tried to ambush the front. That chicane, however, threw a spanner in the works. Ewan, notably, was left out of contention, his team having done plenty of work leading up to that point.

Sabatini then hit the front, Ackermann opened the taps, and Viviani struck out to win it. Or so he thought. Debate will rage on, and he himself may feel it’s underserved, but the record books will show Fernando Gaviria as the winner.
 

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