The Australian Michael Matthews was the winner of the third stage in the Giro d’Italia, after 216 kilometers of a slope route that linked the cities of Vasto and Melfi. He was the third different winner that the competition had since its start, after the victories of the Belgian Remco Evenepoel and the local Jonathan Milan.
The Australian from Team Jayco AlUla crossed the finish line first on arrival in the Basilicata region after a demanding journey that took him 5 hours, 1 minute and 41 seconds.
Behind the winner, a long squad of competitors registered the same brand as the one born 32 years ago in Canberra, such as the Dane Mads Pedersen (Trek – Segafredo), another representative from Australia, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and the Italians Vincenzo Albanese ( EOLO-Kometa) and Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who completed the top 5, in that order.
In relation to the winner of the day, he is the third Australian cyclist with the most stage wins (10) in the Grand Tours after Robbie McEwen (24) and Caleb Ewan (11). In addition, he achieved his third stage victory in the Giro d’Italia, his first since 2015; in the Tour de France there were 4 and the Tour of Spain, 3.
Among the South Americans, the Colombian Einer Rubio (Movistar Team) was the best classified in 38th position and a similar time to the leader of the day, as well as his compatriots Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-EasyPost) in 40th position and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain – Victorious), 43 Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian Jefferson Cepeda (EF Education-EasyPost) was 53.
Belgian Evenepoel (Soudal – Quick Step, 15 this Monday) remains the same leader in the general classification as it was from the first day, now with an accumulated time of 10h18m07s. He is followed by the Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) 32 seconds behind and the Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma and three-time Vuelta a España champion between 2019 and 2021), 44 seconds behind.
At 1m57s, the Colombian Rigoberto Urán is the best in South America in the individual overall, in 24th place. For his part, Buitrago is 38th at 2m24s and Cepeda, 42nd at 2m36s.
The fourth stage on Tuesday will begin in the province of Potenza and will be in the middle of the mountains, with a 175-kilometre route and an altitude of 3,500 meters between the cities of Venosa and Laceno.