Giro d'Italia 2023: Michael Matthews darts to Stage 3 win as Remco Evenepoel makes small GC gain

Michael Matthews (Team Jayco Alula) showed his mettle to win Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia. A largely sedate stage kicked into gear ahead of the two climbs leading up to the finish. The long uphill grind towards Melfi whittled down the peloton, eliminating most of the pure sprint heavyweights, leaving the punchy finish to be contested by Matthews and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).

Ad And it was the Australian who emerged victorious in a lengthy battle to the line, impeccably completing an immaculately planned and perfectly executed team performance. Giro d'Italia'Normal' for Groves to be ‘flustered’ after being called out by Giro leader Evenepoel — Lloyd5 HOURS AGO The third longest stage of this year's Giro d'Italia kept everyone waiting, riders and audiences alike, but when it delivered it did so in explosive style. Before the stage start neither Team Jayco Alula nor Trek-Segafredo made any attempt to disguise their intentions for the stage.

Both teams knew that, in Matthews and Pedersen respectively, they had the two riders with — and in — the perfect shape to suit a select sprint finish coming after a couple of short sharp hills. As a consequence race leader Remco Evenepoel's Soudal Quick-Step team was happy to relinquish responsibility for stage management to them — not that there was all that much to manage when it came to it. Rather than a fierce battle for the break, it was all done and dusted within the first fifty metres of KM0.

The moment the race director dropped his flag, after a long neutralised roll-out, two young riders from debutants Team Corratec — Selle Italia, Veljko Stojnic and Alexander Konychev, eased themselves away from the bunch. And that was that. Both briefly looked around, incredulous that it