Tour of Italy
After an eight-year dry spell, Michael Matthews has won his third stage at the Giro d’Italia. Lukas Pöstlberger’s Australian teammate at Jayco prevailed on Monday in the uphill sprint of the decimated field ahead of Danish ex-world champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo). Lower Austrian Patrick Konrad (Bora) took eleventh place.
Third in the stage after 216 kilometers from Vasto to Melfi was Kaden Groves (AUS) from the Alpecin team in the exhausting sprint. The overall leader Remco Evenepoel (15th/Soudal Quick Step) and the other favorites, like Konrad, finished in the first group.
The Belgian now leads the overall standings 32 seconds ahead of the Portuguese Joao Almeida, while the Slovenian Primoz Roglic improved to third place (+0:44) as he was seventh in the stage. Konrad, now 1:59 minutes behind Evenepoel, managed to jump from 37th to 27th place – Pöstlberger, who was helping Matthews, lost as stage 106th. more than nine minutes.
Rain and two breakaways
Rain and two mountain classifications in the third and fourth category about 30 kilometers from the finish line and the dangerous descent that followed ensured selection in the field. Before that, the race had been dominated by the Corratec Selle Italia pros Veljko Stojnic (SRB) and Alexander Konytschew (RUS), who were caught by their pursuers after a long attempt to escape on the first climb.
Ultimately, Matthews celebrated his first Giro stage win since 2015 when the now 32-year-old, like in 2014, won a sprint stage and the team time trial with Orica GreenEdge. For Matthews it was the 40th professional win and the tenth in one of the three major national tours. He won three stages at the Vuelta, four at the Tour de France – most recently in 2022.
On Tuesday, the first difficult mountain stage is on the program of the 106th Tour of Italy. The fourth section leads from Venosa over 175 kilometers and two mountain classifications of the second category up to Lago Laceno (1,062 m). The class riders around Evenepoel will be put to the test.