Cannondale's Peter Sagan got on the wheel of BMC Racing's Philippe Gilbert and overhauled the former world champion to win Stage 3 of Tirreno-Adriatico in Arrezzo today. On a long uphill drag to the finish, the man who beat Sagan into second place at last weekend's Strade Bianche, Omega Pharma-Quick Step's Michal Kwiatkowski, finished second to take over the race lead from team mate Mark Cavendish. Orica-GreenEdge's Simon Clarke pipped Gilbert, who finished fourth, to third place.
The final 900 metres to the line had a gradient of 5 per cent, and seemed perfect for Gilbert's puncheur style. The Belgian had to go early, though, and once Sagan, with his stronger finish, got on Gilbert's wheel with the line in sight, there was only likely to be one winner.
Overnight leader Cavendish had been dropped from the front group ahead of that final climb, but the overall lead remains with Omega Pharma-Quick Step, which won the opening day's team time trial, courtesy of Kwiatkowski.
Another of its riders, Rigoberto Uran, is now second on GC with Clarke of Orica-GreenEdge - which set the second-fastest time on Wednesday - third.
Afterwards, Sagan said: Today I am very glad for the win. Thank you to all my team-mates because they put me on the front. It was a very dangerous finish.
"When I saw parcours for Tirreno-Adriatico, this stage was very special and I wanted to be on the front today, and I take another victory. I am very happy."
Every single photo is showing the front, now whilst that's important you as a rider have eyes, brakes and a brain so to a certain degree you can...
Liked except... you and I (I'm age 70) are confident cyclists who can look backwards (I had a few years with a neck problem that discouraged me...
Calls for Oxfordshire transport chief to resign blocked...
Depends how you ride them. The current trend among many pros is to ride in a track style looking down at the front wheel. Ok for racing on closed...
That one was completely different though, it was a driver not a car as in the other 3. So 1 in 4 of the stories manage to follow reporting guidelines.
Absolutely they could have. Tarmac is a petroleum-based product and its surface can be very oily when it's newly laid. This is particularly the...
I'm glad the article went into more detail and cleared things up, the headline had me worried that some autonomous building had run rampant and...
Still here, just showing a few signs of wear and tear. Hopefully still serviceable for some years to come.
How can you know that you are "equally fearful" as "any female cyclist"? There is no possible way of quantifying such emotions and female cyclists...
I think it would be fairer to blame the moon - as in "my client is a loony".