ORBETELLO – Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria of UAE Team Emirates was awarded victory on stage three of the Giro d’Italia, when original winner Elia Viviani was penalised by race officials for switching trajectory mid-sprint on Monday.
“The Jury watched the video footage of the sprint and has decided to relegate Elia Viviani. The winner is Fernando Gaviria,” Giro organisers said.
Gaviria took the victory after 5hr 23min 19sec (5:23.19) in the saddle, ahead of France’s Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) and Germany’s Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe).
For 24-year-old Gaviria, it was a fifth Giro victory, having won four stages the last time he competed in 2017.
Jumbo-Visma’s Slovenian rider Primoz Roglic holds the overall leader’s pink jersey for the third day, 19sec ahead of Britain’s Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott, with Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali of Bahrain-Merida third at 23sec.
The 219km stage got under way in Vinci, to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Italian master painter Leonardo da Vinci, who was born in the Tuscan town.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/FndoGaviria?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FndoGaviria's comment about the stage of today 👇 | Il commento di @FndoGaviria alla tappa di oggi 👇 #Giro pic.twitter.com/oQysOFhk1c
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia)
Japan’s Sho Hatsuyama lead a long solo breakaway over 144km, but the stage was marked by numerous falls, with Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart losing more than one-and-a-half minutes.
“With only one rider in the breakaway, it made it a very long stage,” said Roglic.
“It enabled me to enjoy the Maglia Rosa (pink jersey) a bit more. I wasn’t really scared of the crosswinds at the end because we are a team from Holland, so we know how to deal with the wind.”
Tuesday’s fourth stage, one of the longest in this year’s race, covers 235km from Orbetello to Frascati, south of Rome, with undulating twisting roads with the closing kilometres uphill.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/FndoGaviria?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FndoGaviria🇨🇴 - @TeamUAEAbuDhabi
🥈 @ArnaudDemare🇫🇷 - @GroupamaFDJ