Canale (Italy) (AFP)
Hero of a long breakaway of nearly 190 kilometers, a virtually unknown on the podiums, the Dutchman Taco van der Hoorn, won the 3rd stage of the Giro d'Italia on Monday in Canale, where the peloton failed by 4 seconds.
At 27, van der Hoorn had his day of glory in a final through the vineyards of Alba, the capital of white truffles.
The Dutchman of the Intermarché team, used to long raids, took the fourth success of his career, by far the most important.
For letting Peter Sagan's team take on the weight of the pursuit alone, before Fernando Gaviria's men took turns in the last kilometers, the sprinters who had resisted the thorns of the course (unlike Ewan, Groenewegen and Nizzolo, left behind) , only fought for second place.
The Italian Davide Cimolai beat Sagan but the stakes were limited behind the unexpected winner of the day.
The memory of the last Milan-Sanremo could have alerted the rival teams.
The Dutchman, present in the group that escaped shortly after the start, was the last to be caught, in the Cipressa, some ... 273 kilometers further.
This time, van der Hoorn left behind his last companion, the Swiss Simon Pellaud, 9 kilometers from the finish.
Despite an advantage limited to about thirty seconds in advance, he resisted a duo of counter-attackers, formed by the French Tony Gallopin and the Italian Giulio Ciccone, who had emerged from the peloton on the last hill, to about fifteen kilometers from the finish.
"I can't believe it. I just wanted to be aggressive throughout the Giro. I knew it would be very difficult to win a stage," replied van der Hoorn, overjoyed.
- Evenepoel's legs -
"I took my chance but I didn't think we would succeed with a minute's lead before the final. I started to believe that I could win 1 kilometer from the line", added the strong Dutch rider, a large size of 1.87 m for 72 kg whose previous success dates back to October 2018 (Primus Classic) some time after a stoppage due to a concussion.
His Intermarché team, the Belgian "little thumb" of the WorldTour, aligned with his first Giro, described it in one sentence: "He likes to ride against the clock, against the wind and against the peloton, on the Flandrian classics or spring. "
This stage with the confusing outcome proved to be of no consequence for the pink jersey Filippo Ganna, now followed by the Norwegian Tobias Foss (at 16 sec) and the Belgian Remco Evenepoel (at 20 sec).
His runner-up from Biella, the Italian Edoardo Affini, was left behind in the Piedmontese hills.
Ganna was reserved, on the other hand, about her chances of keeping her property.
"I saw that Remco (Evenpoel) had fantastic legs. It will be difficult for me to defend the pink jersey," said the Italian.
Tuesday, the 4th stage ends in mid-mountain, in Sestola, where the Italian Giulio Ciccone was revealed in 2016. The top of the last climb (Passerino pass), 4 kilometers long with a 10% slope, is located 2500 meters from the finish, judged in the hinterland of Modena.
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