Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) won stage 3 of the Tour of the Alps, the first victory of his professional career, after attacking the high-speed breakaway of the day with over 70km left to run before holding off the GC contenders.
Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the sprint for second place, 19 seconds down on Frigo, to take six precious bonus seconds, with Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) finishing third to take four bonus seconds.
Thanks to the time Michael Storer (Tudor) gained with victory on stage 2, the Australian kept the race leader's green jersey. He leads Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) by 41 seconds, with French super talent Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) third at 41 seconds. Hindley moved up to 45 seconds down on Storer.
Stage 4 of the Tour of the Alps is another day in the Italian and Austrian Alps, with a 162.7km ride from Sillian to Obertilliach.
Frigo pointed to the sky as he celebrated his first professional victory. He was the Italian Under 23 national champion in 2019 and has finally confirmed his talents as a professional as he prepares for the Giro d'Italia.
"It was a great day," Frigo said.
"We knew it could be a day for a breakaway, and we had to pay attention to that. Luckily, I got into the big group, but that means chaos and anarchy. I knew it was a good idea to try to attack from a distance and try to make a selection."
"It was a bit of a risk to attack from so far. It was also a test for the legs as I'm preparing for the Giro. I didn't believe I'd stay away in the first part of the attacks, but once the gap wasn't closing. I did everything I could to stay away."
Frigo in the midst of his mammoth solo ride (Image credit: Getty Images)
How it unfolded
The first hour of the 145.5km stage from Vipiteno-Racines to San Candido was covered at over 50km/h as the riders blasted along the valley road east towards the Austrian border.
Frigo made sure he was in the early attack of 21 riders that went away, and they pushed on during the Antermoia climb that touched the northern edge of the Dolomites. Also in there were Lennard Kämna (Lidl-Trek), Alessandro De Marchi (Jaco AlUla) and Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost), creating a quality breakaway.
Tudor had Florian Stork in the attack, and with the German only 1:09, rival teams were forced to pick up the chase, with Lidl-Trek spending a lot of time on the front, pegging the gap to 3:00.
Frigo wasn't happy with the big break and so attacked alone on the Furkelpass with more than 70km to go.
Most of the other attackers were caught on the long climb, but Frigo powered on in a brave and strong attack. He was not an overall threat, and so Storer and Tudor let him gain close to 4:00 with 40km to go.
Riders tackle a climb during stage 3 of the Tour of the Alps (Image credit: Getty Images)
The final Vierschachberg climb was Frigo's final test after a passage through the finish area with 21km to go. He kept the remains of the break at a safe distance of powered up the 5.9km climb that zig-zagged up the side of the mountain.
His teammate Matthew Riccitello made a determined attack to try to shake up the overall classification.
The American climber got a gap but also dragged the GC riders closer to Frigo, as they chased him down over the summit and on the testing descent.
Riccitello was eventually caught, but Frigo was still 40 seconds clear after the descent and so had time to ease up, celebrate his victory and savour his first professional victory.
The 27-rider GC group finished just 19 seconds behind him, with the only time differences created by the bonus seconds.
Jai Hindley, Derek Gee, and Giulio Ciccone sprint for the podium places (Image credit: Getty Images)
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
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