Tour of Croatia: Nizzolo wins stage 3 in Sibenik

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Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) took a hair-raising sprint victory on a sinuous finale to stage 3 of the Tour of Croatia. The Italian was pulled to the front before a series of turns and in the downhill dash to the line took the win from Timothy Dupont (Veranda's WIllems) and Matteo Pelucchi (IAM Cycling).

With race leader Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) out of the time bonuses in fourth, Nizzolo resumed his spot at the top of the general classification with his second stage win of three days of racing.

"It was really fast to get the breakaway back, and the guys did a perfect job in the leadout, so I had to win," said Nizzolo. "All day we rode well, the circuit was hilly and before was tough too, harder than last two days. I am feeling good and I was confident for the sprint, but at the end, I was scared because I could not shift into my biggest gear. My cadence was really high, but it worked out with the perfect lead out."

Dimension Data directeur sportif Alex Sans Vega explained that their lead-out for Cavendish came unravelled as the peloton caught the breakaway before the flamme rouge.

"Coming to the final there was a bit of chaos in the final 1.5km when the break was caught. For that reason, there was a bit of disorganisation and Mark wasn't able to keep a good position. He was a bit too far back for the sprint, he still sprinted well but the positioning was the reason for not getting a better result. The team showed they were strong, committed and they are working really well together so I am sure we still have some more good results to come in the next days of this race."

The 189.8km stage from Makarska to Šibenik was led by a six-man move containing Josef Cerny (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Nicola Boem (Bardiani CSF), Marcin Bialoblocki (ONE Pro Cycling), Artem Ovechkin (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Mark Christian (Team WIGGINS), and Kamil Gradek (Verva ActiveJet).

The group gained six minutes, with Dimension Data setting the pace. Trek-Segafredo and Tinkoff each lent one rider to the effort to control the breakaway mid-way through the stage, and the gap began to fall steadily in the second half of the stage. But with 25km to go, the gap was over two minutes and Trek-Segafredo knew they had to contribute more to have a chance for Nizzolo.

With 3km to go the gap was just 21 seconds and attacks flew from the peloton from Androni-Giocattoli's Daniele Ratto and others, but Dimension Data shut down the moves for team leader Cavendish. Trek-Segafredo again took control of the bunch as the final climb eased, but time was running out to pull back the six leaders, who continued to work well together on the gentle descent.

But as the road eased, the gap plummeted, and in sight of the flamme rouge, Bialblocki tried to push the pace as the peloton bore down on them, but his effort was futile. They were all swept up by the Tinkoff-led peloton.

Trek-Segafredo took charge in the twisty-turny finale and in the downhill sprint delivered Nizzolo to his second stage win.

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