Matthews won and Evenepoel showed his most cannibalistic side in the third stage of the Giro

Only great champions have the predatory gene and no one can doubt the Belgian’s ambition Remco Evenpeoel and his winning character. The world champion carefully prepared his second presence in Italy is spinning, after the first failure of 2021, and wants to control all the details. He already wore the leader’s pink jersey with the individual time trial on the first day and knew that at any second he could scratch the development of a race as long and complicated as Italy is spinning It can be worth its weight in gold.

Today’s sporting proposal doesn’t exactly invite optimism. A long and tiring day of 213 kilometres, which only got more lively in the last 39 kilometres, with two lower altitude climbs that could add some spice to the race. Fortunately, you always have to be thankful for having some maverick teams and some brave runners. This is the case of Italian set Corratec, which again justified the organization’s invitation to this year’s race by fielding two of its riders in the day’s breakaway: Alexander Koychev and Veljko Stojnic They worked their way into the complicity of the peloton, reaching a margin of more than six minutes over a peloton that took the day calmly, more than having the pesky rain they didn’t much like.

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The pace of the peloton began to quicken as the highlight of the day approached, the last 40 kilometers of the climb to Lakes of Monticchio (3rd, 6.3 km at 6.4%) with 39 kilometers to go and almost immediately after the climb to Valico La Croce (4th, 3.1 km at 6%). Koychev and Stojnic faced the first difficulty of the day with a 1’26” minute margin compared to a peloton where the Trek-Segafredo and Team Jayco AlUla are the ones who showed the most interest in going down the break, thinking about the options for Matthews and Pedersen. They ate the escapees for about four kilometers and that’s it Pinot and Buitrago transferred, which will serve the French runner of Groupama-FDJ to proceed to rule the mountain after passing through two levels first.

The peloton broke and the two leading favourites, Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic they are marked closely. The Slovenian team Jumbo-Vismatried to cut a few seconds off the Belgian leader, but Evenepoel responded first time to go first in the bonus sprint of rapola and add another second in his favor. Yes, just for a moment, but in a show that he is the boss and she is under him.

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Matthews and the Team Jayco AlUla they tortured all they could Mads Pedersonto the point where the Dane barely held off the Australian in the final sprint, in Matthews’ 40th victory as a professional – the first achieved 13 years ago on stage 1 of Langkawi Tour 2010-the first of the season and his first Giro win since he won the third stage of the 2019 edition.

This Tuesday, the change of scenery, with a mountain stage, with three levels of the second category, on a route of constant ups and downs, perfect for the peloton to break into a thousand pieces and for the rider who wants to be the main staff can be displayed.