Mads Pedersen won the 3rd stage of the Tour d’Italie in the Sprint to resume the leading leader in Vlore in Albania on Sunday.
Already the winner of the first stage on Friday, the runner of Lidl-Trek settled a peloton of sixty runners in the absence of all the main sprinters released in a long collar with two-thirds of the race.
Thanks to the bonifications, he takes up the pink jersey from the Slovenian Primoz Roglic who arrived in the peloton with all the other favorites for the general after a quiet day.
Nine seconds ahead of general
“Already two stage victories and back in pink, that’s exactly what we wanted this morning,” said Pedersen who was only a second behind Roglic to the general before the start of this third stage.
The Danish, who won the 52nd victory for his career, has ahead of the Sprint the New Zealander Corbin Strong and the Venezuelan Orluis Aurlar to pocket the ten seconds of bonuses granted to the stage winner.
In the general classification, he is now nine seconds ahead of Roglic and fourteen on his Czech teammate Mathias Vacek.
The Spaniard Juan Ayuso, considered the main rival of Roglic for the final victory, is fifth at 25 seconds.
Monday, rest day
Pedersen will keep the leader jersey at least until Tuesday since the Giro platoon, after these first three stages in Albania, will rally Italy on Monday during a day devoted to rest and transfer.
The fourth stage Tuesday between Alberobello and Lecce is promised to sprinters, an opportunity for runners like Olav Kooij to take their revenge.
On Sunday, they were all dropped in the long climb of llogarase (10.5 km at 7% on average), including Wout Van Aert, far from its best level.
Pedersen survived him thanks to the big work of his team, starting with the Italian climber Giulio Ciccone, and his own, excellent shape.
The stage, only animated by a breakaway, the efforts of Pello Bilbao and Lorenzo Fortunato in the pass and the attack of a … goat on the New Zealand runner Dion Smith, was for the rest of the promises.
