Victorious Sella comes back in style

Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli) has won the third stage of the Coppi e Bartali race through the central Apennines hills, thereby keeping the race lead for his Italian team. Androni Giocattoli had led the race since the team time trial in Riccione, and had the firepower to successfully defend the jersey.

The fast-driven 155.5km stage from Casalecchio de Reno near Bologna to Gaggio Montano included two testing climbs before three laps of a hilly finishing circuit, which proved to be exactly to Sella's taste. The best climber of the 2008 Giro d'Italia - who served a one-year suspension for EPO-CERA use later that year - set out to a spectacular solo victory with 17 kilometres to go, using the final hill of Gaggio Montano as his springboard.

Androni Giocattoli in control

A four-man break was able to get away in the beginning of the race, building up an maximum advantage of 3:40 after 50 kilometres. Matteo Fedi (De Rosa Ceramica Flaminia), Christian Meier (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling), Juan Villegas (Colombia es pasion - Café de Colombia) and Simone Campagnaro (D'Angelo & Antenucci Nippo) were in command even though, at 41.050 km/h average, the first two hours of racing were fast considering the hilly course.

Under the pursuit of the leader's Androni Giocattoli team, the escape however slowly lost ground, and as the gap came down to only two minutes around km 95, three riders formed a counter-attack: Angel Vicioso (Androni Giocattoli), Filippo Savini (Colnago CSF Inox) and Fortunato Baliani (D'Angelo & Antenucci Nippo).

Fifteen kilometres later, the chasers had bridged up to the remainder of the leaders, but Campagnaro and Savini got dropped under the pressure. With the peloton also coming up dangerously close, many more riders eventually bridged up to the break, including José Rujano and Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli) as well as Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (Farnese Vini). A new group of 21 riders thus formed around km 123, closely followed by the bunch.

On the final, hilly circuit course, Rujano took the points at the first KOM summit in Gaggio Montano, where Adriano Malori (Lampre - ISD) and Stefano Pirazzi (Colnago CSF Inox) took advantage of the descent to create a small gap.

But on the second of three ascents up the Gaggio Montano, Androni Giocattoli sent its second climbing ace Sella up the road to catch the two leaders, eventually replacing Malori. Pirazzi and Sella were thus in the lead with 16 kilometres to go, followed at only 18 seconds by a group of 25 men including Visconti.

The duo were able to extend their lead on the descent, and as they tackled the climb for the third and final time, Sella dropped his companion to finish it off solo. As he crested the hill, he had distanced Pirazzi by 10 seconds and the chase group by over one minute. In a final effort, he flew down the descent and celebrated his victory as he entered the finishing straight.