Stage 3 came down to a reduced sprint.
The peloton of Tirreno-Adriatico had a 216km stage on the menu Wednesday, on a day which took them to Foligno, a small town founded by the Umbrians almost 3000 years ago, where Johann Neumeister published in 1472 the first ever book in the Italian language: Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Commedy”.
On paper, it should have been a quiet and rather uneventful stage, but crosswinds spiced things up in the final 20 kilometers, blowing the bunch to pieces. Initially, only Julian Alaphilippe made the cut for Soudal Quick-Step, but a mad chase of his teammates helped Fabio Jakobsen bridge across to the first group with just four kilometers to go. Our team continued to drive hard at the front, but a series of bends split the field again, leaving only a handful of riders in contention for the win.
In the end, it was Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) who took the victory, while Fabio Jakbsen came home in ninth place. The general classification remained more or less the same, meaning that Casper Pedersen continues to be our squad’s highest-ranked rider ahead of the hilly stage to Tortoreto.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
