Cavendish sprints to stage three victory on Giro d'Italia return

KAPOSVAR, Hungary : Mark Cavendish marked his return to the Giro d'Italia with a commanding sprint on stage three of the Grand Tour race, a 201km-ride from Kaposvar to Balatonfured, on Sunday as Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel retained the overall lead.

Cavendish, riding for QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, was given the perfect lead-out by Michael Morkov with just under 300 metres remaining and comfortably out-sprinted the peloton to cross the line with a time of four hours, 56 minutes and 39 seconds.

The Manx rider claimed the 16th Giro d'Italia stage win of his career, nine years after his last, in Hungary before the race moves to Italy for stage four in Sicily on Tuesday.

Arnaud Demare of Groupama-FDJ finished second while Fernando Gaviria of UAE Team Emirates came third.