Tirreno-Adriatico: Mathieu van der Poel wins stage 3 in Gualdo Tadino

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Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) got the better of his great rival Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) on a draggy uphill sprint to win stage 3 of Tirreno-Adriatico.

The Dutchman delivered a ferocious kick in the finale to claim victory, while Van Aert might have paid for the effort made to bring back a late attack from Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

Stybar went off the front via a clever manoeuvre from Deceuninck-QuickStep. Perhaps anticipating that he would not be a match for Van der Poel and Van Aert on a finishing incline less severe than yesterday, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) slowed his pace while second in the line behind Stybar in the final kilometre, allowing the Czech rider a gap of several bike-lengths.

Van Aert closed the gap, but could not match Van der Poel’s speed when he opened his sprint, and for a second successive stage had to settle for second place.

Talking about Deceuninck-QuickStep’s ploy, Van der Poel explained how “Wout [van Aert] immediately reacted to it. Otherwise it could have been dangerous. I think I made the right decision, and just followed. It was a really hard sprint, it went uphill a bit, and after such a long stage it hurt. 

“I really wanted to win a stage, that’s why I was a bit frustrated with myself yesterday when I made a mistake. I’m really glad to win today’s stage.” 

His victory came after his Alpecin-Fenix team had done much of the work earlier in the stage to bring back the day’s five-man breakaway, after the rest of the peloton showed little intent to do so. 

With Jumbo-Visma apparently intent on saving energy, presumably in order to be fresher when defending Van Aert’s overall lead on tomorrow’s decisive mountain top finish, a game of poker played out in the peloton as no team wanted to commit themselves. 

Eventually, Alpecin-Fenix took responsibility, and did much of the work so that the catch was made within the final three kilometres. 

Van der Poel was grateful to his teammates for the work they put in.

“I was really happy to take the win, especially after the team did an amazing job today to close the gap to the first group.”

Following Van Aert’s bunch sprint win on the opening stage and Alaphilippe’s uphill victory yesterday, today’s result means that all of the 'Big Three' have now won a stage at this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico.

The bonus seconds picked up at the line also mean they now hold all three podium positions on the GC, with Van Aert leading Van der Poel by four seconds, and Alaphilippe a further six seconds adrift.

That’s likely to change tomorrow, when the riders will showdown on the race’s only mountain top finish. 

How it unfolded

Despite missing out on the stage win yesterday, Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) retained his lead at the top of the overall classification.

As overall leader, as well as being a top favourite again for the stage, the onus was on his Jumbo-Visma team to make the chase in the peloton.

However, the five-man break that formed at the start of the day featuring Mark Padun (Bahrain-Victorious), Davide Bais (EOLO-Kometa), Tobias Ludvigsson (Groupama-FDJ), Guillaume Boivin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Niki Terpstra (Total Direct Energie) was given a large amount of leeway by Jumbo-Visma, stretching their lead to a bigger and bigger advantage until it had reached over nine minutes by the half-way point.

Only at around 110km to go, in anticipation of some exposed sections, was any intent shown in the peloton, as teams moved to the front to secure a good position and not get caught out in any potential crosswinds. 

Upon reaching these exposed roads at around 100km to go, the peloton looked like it might break into pieces at any moment, with many of the race’s top names, particularly Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), setting a searing pace at the front.

Things calmed down again, but not before the gap had almost halved to around five and a half minutes. 

The slow-down allowed the small groups that had been shed out the back to return to the peloton. But one dropped rider unable to return was Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal), who, suffering from mild gastroenteritis, abandoned the race.

After hovering around 5:30 for a while, the gap to the breakaway began to gradually come down again after Alpecin-Fenix put one rider, Jonas Rickaert, at the front of the peloton. His work, along with Jumbo-Visma on the day’s only categorised climb (the Poggio della Croce) was enough to bring it down to 3:30 by the summit, 80km from the finish.

The impetus again went out of the chase after cresting the climb, however, as no team showed any interest in bringing the break. After a significant slow-down that allowed several riders, including Van Aert, to take a comfort break, the gap had risen again to six minutes, with just 60km left to bring them back. 

With the break now far from guaranteed to be caught, Alpecin-Fenix at last took it upon themselves to set the pace. They struggled initially to make inroads, but once Deceuninck-QuickStep joined them at the front the deficit began to fall at a sufficient rate for the catch to be made.

An uneventful phase of the race followed, as Alpecin-Fenix, with some help from Deceuninck-QuickStep, did the necessary work to bring the break back. 

Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), who was fourth overall and was wearing the white jersey as best young rider in the race, suffered a mechanical within the final 20km. 

Although their days appeared numbers, the five men in the breakaway continued to commit and work well together. They only began to break up with 11km to go, when first Ludvigsson and then Bais struggled with the pace on an uphill drag and were dropped, leaving just the trio of Padun, Terpstra and Boivin out front.

That trio still had a lead of over 20 seconds with 5km to ride, but the catch was finally made soon after, just under 3km away from the finish. 

There was a significant crash towards the front of the bunch  3.5km from the finish, holding up around a dozen riders. None of the stage favourites or GC contenders appeared to be involved. 

With the catch made and the uphill drag to the finish approaching, the likes of Jumbo-Visma and Deceuninck-QuickStep contested for the best position at the front. Deceuninck-QuickStep won the battle and took control under the 1km to go banner, shortly after which Stybar made the ploy that nearly caught Van der Poel and Van Aert out.