Gaviria wins Stage 3 after Viviani relegated for dangerous sprinting – Giro d’Italia

Giro d’Italia 2019

Stage 3

Colombia’s Fernando Gaviria was awarded stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia following the relegation of initial winner Elia Viviani as Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic retained the pink jersey and Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart plunged out of the top 10.

Italian national champion Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) looked to have won the chaotic bunch sprint in the Tuscan coastal town of Orbetello ahead of Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) and Frenchman Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ).

But replays showed Viviani veering violently to the left in the home straight to close the door on compatriot Matteo Moschetti of Trek-Segafredo, who avoided a nasty fall en route to a fifth place finish eventually upgraded to fourth following the controversial decision.

Exposed coastal roads and a dangerous chicane inside the final kilometre made for a messy conclusion to the 220km stage from Vinci as Viviani darted from the wheel of Sunday’s stage 2 winner Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and apparently closed the door on youngster Moschetti.

A late surge saw Gaviria push Viviani all the way, the Colombian sportingly congratulating his former team-mate after crossing the line not yet knowing that the podium celebrations would require his presence rather than that of an irate Viviani.

Forced off-line following Viviani’s movement, Demare took the long route round to nip third place – upgraded to second – ahead of Germany’s Ackermann, who conceded the maglia ciclamino to Gaviria. Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo of Dimension Data took fifth.

There was no strong finish from Australia’s Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) who found himself distanced near the end of a hectic finale which also thwarted Team Ineos’ Geoghegan Hart, who was involved in a crash with 5km remaining before losing well over a minute in the overall standings.

Slovenian race leader Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) kept out of trouble to retain the maglia rosa by 19 seconds over Britain’s Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) while Geoghagen Hart plunged to 57th place at 2’03”.

A blustery start in the birth town of Leonardo da Vinci seemed to act as a deterrent for any aspiring escapees with just the one rider, Japan’s Sho Hatsuyama, nipping clear of the peloton in the opening kilometre.

Although a leg-sapping 220km in distance, Monday’s stage was amazingly only the eighth longest of a race which threatens to have favoured quantity over quality.

Little happened on the road for the opening few hours as our plucky lone leader put in a huge shift for his Nippo-Vini Fantini Faizanè team and their myriad sponsors to build up a maximum advantage of seven minutes in the rolling Tuscan hills west of Siena.

Flying the flag for Japan, 30-year-old Hatsuyama looked to restore a bit of pride to the Land of the Rising Sun following the opening day ejection of his compatriot and team-mate Hiroki Nishimura, who finished Saturday’s time trial outside the limit.

The former Japanese national champion saw his lead come down to below the three-minute mark following the intermediate sprint at Poggibonsi as Demare’s Groupama-FDJ team upped the tempo behind to propel their Frenchman to the maximum remaining points in the battle for the maglia ciclamino.

But Hatsuyama stretched out his lead to seven minutes over rolling terrain until Belgium’s Thomas De Gendt – a man normally playing the lone leader role – came to the front of the peloton to help lead the chase for his Lotto Soudal team-mate Ewan.

With the lead still around the five-minute mark, a long and technical descent from the top of a ridge signalled a shift in the peloton as Trek-Segafredo came to the front and threw the hammer down.

As the wind increased and all the teams of the main favourites clustered towards the front, Hatsuyama’s lead tumbled down, the 30-year-old suddenly finding himself clinging on off the back of the pack with 75km remaining.

Demare doubled up at the second intermediate sprint at Grosseto which saw the route organisers take a novel approach to route design more closely related to an assault course than a bike race.

Riders were forced to bunny-hop over pavements and weave their way around road furniture as the pressure intensified dramatically. Britain’s Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Ineos) was the big casualty, the youngster from Hackney doing down and bloodying his right knee.

The drama eased off as Italy’s Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) led the pack over the summit of the only categorised climb, the Cat.4 rise to Poggio l’Apparita, to consolidate his lead in the maglia azzurra king of the mountains competition.

But the tension was still high as the peloton rollicked its way towards the coast and the expected crosswinds of the spit separating the Tyrrhenian Sea from the salt lagoon of Orbetello.

With 5km remaining a crash involving Enrico Battaglin (Katusha-Alpecin) caused a split in the pack and brought down Geoghegan Hart for a second time – the youngster eventually rolling home 1.28” down with four other Ineos team-mates.

Back on the front and it was Bob Jungels of Deceuninck-QuickStep who led a reduced peloton through the kilometre-to-go barrier with Viviani in tow.

A tight left then right-hand bend inside the final 500 metres shuffled the pack and dealt Ackermann the strongest hand. But the German went too early and had no wind left in his sails by the time Viviani powered through for what looked like to be his first victory of the race.

The race jury, however, adjudged that the Italian national champion had sprinted too erratically and relegated him to the back of the peloton in 73rd place – much to the disgust of the rider and his team manager Patrick Lefevere.

So victory, by default, went to Gaviria, and with it, the maglia ciclamino.

Tomorrow’s 235km stage from Orbetello to Frascati plays out over rolling roads but only includes one lower-category climb early on. It looks to be one for the puncheurs with a short and sharp ramp to the line.