Tour of Britain: Elia Viviani wins stage 3

Elia Viviani (Team Sky) claimed stage 3 of the Tour of Britain after a sprint finish at Floors Castle. The Italian came around Sondre Holst Enger (IAM Cycling) inside the final 100 metres to take his second stage win in three days. Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) finished second with Matteo Trentin (Etixx QuickStep) in third and Holst Enger fading into fourth.

Overnight race leader Petr Vakoc (Etixx-QuickStep) crashed with just over three kilometres to go and lost his overall lead to Lobato. Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN – Qhubeka) is second, 10 seconds down on the Spaniard. Vakoc finished the stage but came over the line 10 minutes down.

Viviani came through a hectic finale, making use of the work provided by Ian Stannard, Peter Kennaugh and his final leadout man, Ben Swift, before positioning himself close the front.

Lotto Soudal had taken control of the field inside the final 1500 meters with André Greipel looking to set up Jens Debusschere. However, the Lotto train was swamped with 200 meters to go.

The early part of the stage was marked by a six-man break that clipped off the front of the peloton inside of the first 40 kilometres of racing. They included
Tyler Farrar (MTN – Qhubeka), Russell Downing (Cult Energy Pro Cycling), Aidis Kruopis (An Post – Chainreaction), Marcin Bialoblocki (One Pro Cycling), Mathew Cronshaw (Madison Genesis) and Jonathan McEvoy (NFTO).

They established a lead of over four minutes with Etixx the only team to sit on the front of the peloton and set the tempo. Bialoblocki, Farrar and Cronshaw were clearly the strongest riders in the break and moved clear of their companions as they crested Wilton Hill. Downing provided a valiant chase effort on the descent but he was eventually reeled in.

The leading trio had a gap of 4:21 over the peloton with 34 kilometres to go but when Etixx were joined on the front by Cannnondale-Garmin and Lotto-Soudal the gap quickly began to tumble.

Farrar, who had dragged the final move clear on the final climb, led them onto the final climb of Dingleton with their gap relatively intact and although he took the points at the top, the gap to the peloton was beginning to drop significantly.

With 18 kilometres remaining the gap was down to 1:55, with a further 30 seconds cut within five kilometres.

The leading break were caught within the final kilometres but not before a crash that took down the race leader and a number of other riders. Vakoc was seen sitting on the side of the road clutching his side but he was at least able to remount and finish the stage before undergoing further medical examinations.

Inside the final kilometre Lotto appeared to be in control with Greipel acting as a leadout man but the Belgian team were overpowered with Viviani capping another excellent stage for Team Sky.

Full results

Sprint 1, Abbeytown

Sprint 2, Carlisle

Sprint 3, Newcastleton

Finish

KOM 1, Wauchope

KOM 2, Wilton Hill

KOM 3, Dingleton

Teams 

General Classification after stage 3

Points classification

Sprints classification

Mountains classification

Teams Classification