Tadej Pogacar retains Giro d'Italia pink jersey as Tim Merlier sprints to Stage 3 victory

Tadej Pogacar threatened to win a second stage in a row at the Giro d'Italia before having to settle for keeping hold of the leader's pink jersey on Monday.

The UAE Team Emirates rider had sent out an ominous warning to his rivals after a scintillating victory 24 hours earlier to win his first ever Giro stage and take over as overall race leader.

And Pogacar powered away with two kilometres of Monday's Stage 3 remaining – following a move first started by EF Education's Mikkel Honore – leaving key rival Geraint Thomas of Ineos Grenadiers no choice but to follow the only man ahead of him in the general classification.

Despite opening up a sizeable gap they were caught a little over 200 metres from the line as Soudal-QuickStep's Merlier came through to pip Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarche), but it was another show of strength from Pogacar – albeit the sort of effort he might pay for down the line.

“Little bit complicated but not too much. We can break it down in three sections: first two hours were really easy and nothing happened, then one hour was just full gas from each corner, downhill, little climb was full,” said two-time Tour de France winner Pogacar.

“It was a little bit of chaos then everything came back together and it was a little bit stressful, not too much craziness but you could feel the tension. Then in the final it was stretching the legs.”

The Slovenian also insisted he was not the cause of the early break. “I did not attack, I followed the wheel,” he said.