Giro d'Italia 2023: Michael Matthews darts to Stage 3 win as Remco Evenepoel makes small GC gain

Michael Matthews (Team Jayco Alula) showed his mettle to win Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia.

A largely sedate stage kicked into gear ahead of the two climbs leading up to the finish. The long uphill grind towards Melfi whittled down the peloton, eliminating most of the pure sprint heavyweights, leaving the punchy finish to be contested by Matthews and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).

And it was the Australian who emerged victorious in a lengthy battle to the line, impeccably completing an immaculately planned and perfectly executed team performance.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal–Quick-Step) took the spoils in a late intermediate sprint to extend his lead in the general classification.

The third longest stage of this year's Giro d'Italia kept everyone waiting, riders and audiences alike, but when it delivered it did so in explosive style.

Before the stage start neither Team Jayco Alula nor Trek-Segafredo made any attempt to disguise their intentions for the stage. Both teams knew that, in Matthews and Pedersen respectively, they had the two riders with - and in - the perfect shape to suit a select sprint finish coming after a couple of short sharp hills.

As a consequence race leader Evenepoel's Soudal Quick-Step team was happy to relinquish responsibility for stage management to them - not that there was all that much to manage when it came to it.

Rather than a fierce battle for the break, it was all done and dusted within the first fifty metres of KM0. The moment the race director dropped his flag, after a long neutralised roll-out, two young riders from debutants Team Corratec - Selle Italia, Veljko Stojnic and Alexander Konychev, eased themselves away from the bunch. And that was that.

Both briefly looked around, incredulous that it could be that easy, laughing when they saw that there was no other rider even sniffing around to join them, before pressing on into the race lead.

For some 150km that was pretty much the state of things. The pair did not hang around, covering some 45km in the first hour and seldom letting up as they extended their advantage to close to seven minutes.

The second hour, after the race had headed inland saw an uncontested intermediate sprint up front at Foggia, with the Italian rider taking the top spot in that competition. A slightly more competitive one took place behind for the minor placings. Pedersen, who had previously expressed his hope to add the maglia ciclamino to his Tour de France maillot vert, claimed most of the remaining points.

The race continued south into the belly of the countryside. As the stage passed halfway the weather went from overcast and humid, to a drizzly cool. Enough for windscreen wipers to start swishing on the cars in the convoy, but not so much as to call for rain capes. The concern was more about how it would affect the freshly laid tarmac of the finish in Melfi, and especially the descents from the pair of climbs before it.

Stil, the breakers pressed, and hung on to their slender advantage which hovered between one minute and two. Both knew as well as anyone that it was doomed but it had been a respectable day in the spotlight and a valuable learning experience.

As the two categorised climbs drew near, with 40km to go, the fight for position began in earnest and the pace in the peloton crept up. The big teams spread themselves across the road before Jayco Alula led them onto the Valico dei Laghi di Monticchio at an aggressive tempo. In a flash, 20 seconds was taken off the lead of Konychev and Stojnic. Less than halfway up the climb the pair were obliged to part ways, leaving the Serbian out front, awaiting the inevitable.

Stojnic was caught before he could claim the king of the mountains points - too tempting a prize for stronger riders in the field. Jayco Alula kept the pace as high as they could, with Matthews urging on team-mates Michael Hepburn and Eddie Dunbar. Their goal was to make it as hard as possible, with the hope of distancing Pedersen.

They couldn't quite manage it there, but the Dane had slipped further down the order than he might have liked by the summit. There it was Thubau Pinot (Groupama FDJ) who attacked over the top to take the maximum six points on offer.

On the carefully controlled descent Pedersen was able to get back to the front of a severely slimmed down bunch before the second, shorter climb, which followed soon after. Again Jayco went hard and this time it was too much for Pedersen who lost contact with the front group. Fortunately he had enough team-mates and sufficient road remaining to return to the head of affairs before the finale.

The second sprint in Rapolla, which came 10km from the finish, brought a flash of battle between the two big GC favourites. Bonus seconds offered a chance for Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) to take back a bit of time lost on the opening day. In fact, it was Evenepoel who extended his lead in the overall as he followed Roglic's wheel and came round him before the line.

Pedersen and Matthews were never far from each other's shoulders going into the last technical, tricky kilometres of the race. Both their teams did what they needed to, delivering their leader's round and up and down and dropping them off on the long false flat finale. They showed each other plenty of respect, and room, as the race seemed to go into slow motion. It was Matthews who kicked first, and held his speed for the longest, and long enough to take home a first victory in almost 300 days.

Kaden Groves (Alpecin–Deceuninck) did well to get over the climbs and deliver a second third place finish in as many days. In the General Classification, all the favourites made it in safely and with the leaders, apart from Filippo Ganna (Ineos) who went backwards on the first climb.

- - -

Stream the Giro d'Italia live on discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com