ROME, March 8, 2013 – Slovakian star Peter Sagan held off sprint ace
Mark Cavendish to win the third stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico over 190km from
Indicatore to Narni Scalo on Friday.
With former world champion Cavendish on his wheel, Sagan attacked from well
back and reeled in Andre Greipel to claim the victory.
Race leader Cavendish left his attack too late while a fading Greipel took
third on the stage.
Sagan praised his team’s tactics on the stage.
“We made the stage hard to wear out the sprinters. My teammates were great
on the final climb and the contenders paid for their efforts on the final
straight,” he said.
“I beat the best sprinters of the peloton and this is a great satisfaction.
My goal for the ‘Tirreno’ is reached, now we’ll see day by day.”
A series of attacks in the final 15km in wet conditions forced up the pace
as the sprinters’ teams accelerated to control the action.
No-one could get away for very long and as the stage drew to a close
Greipel seemed ideally placed while Cavendish found himself a long way back.
Greipel led until the final 50-metres but while Sagan timed his charge to
perfection, Cavendish left himself just a little bit too much to do.
Australian Matthew Goss, who won Thursday’s second stage, could manage only
fifth on the day, behind German Gerald Ciolek in fourth.
Saturday’s fourth stage is a lumpy 170km run from Narni Scalo to Prati di
Tivo.
Resultss from the third stage of
Tirreno-Adriatico, a 190km ride from Indicatore to Narni on Friday:
Stage
1. Peter Sagan (SVK) Cannondale 5hr 15min 12sec, 2. Mark Cavendish (GBR)
Omega same time, 3. Andre Greipel (GER) Lotto s.t., 4. Gerald Ciolek (GER) MTN
s.t., 5. Matthew Goss (AUS) Orica-GreenEdge s.t., 6. Davide Cimolai (ITA)
Lampre s.t., 7. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin s.t., 8. Thor Hushovd (NOR) BMC
s.t., 9. Manuel Belletti (ITA) AG2R s.t., 10. Simon Geschke (GER) Team Argos
s.t.
Overall Standings
1. Mark Cavendish (GBR) Omega 11:23:08, 2. Michal Kwiatkowski (POL) Omega
7, 3. Niki Terpstra (NED) Omega 9, 4. Tony Martin (GER) Omega 5. Zdenek Stybar
(CZE) Omega s.t., 6. Peter Sagan (SVK) Cannondale 18, 7. Alex Dowsett (GBR)
Movistar 20, 8. Giovanni Visconti (ITA) Movistar s.t. 9. Benat Intxausti
Elorriaga (ESP) Movistar s.t. 10. Juan Jose Cobo (ESP) Movistar s.t.