The Slovakian superstar launched with just under 200 m to go with Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) on his left. The Frenchman quickly caught up as did Davide Ballerini (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) on Sagan’s right. All three threw their bikes at the finish line and a long wait followed to see who actually won.
In the end, Arnaud Démare was the one celebrating.
“Today, I went all out for the win,” Peter Sagan said. “It was such a close finish, I didn’t know who was first, second, or third, we all came to the line together and we had to wait for the photo finish. I did my best and sprints often go this way. At times, I won by a few centimetres and at times, it was like today. Our plan today was to go very hard on the climb in order to see what happens.”
The “consolation prize” for the Slovak is the ciclamino jersey. However, he only leads the points competition by a few points. He is determined to keep the jersey till the end. Do you think he’ll manage it?
Geraint Thomas is out
The leader of the Ineos Grenadiers Team fell heavily at the start of stage three after colliding with a stray bidon. He made it to the end of the stage, which is very impressive considering the outcome of his later medical examination. It was revealed that Thomas had suffered a fractured pelvis and so he had to abandon the race.
“It’s so frustrating,” Thomas admitted. “I’d put so much work into this race. I did everything I could and feel like I was in just as good if not better shape than when I won the Tour. I was feeling really good. So for it just to end like this is gutting.”
The 34-year-old Welshman did well in the opening time trial and was third in the general classification as the peloton approached the first mountain of the race – Mount Etna.
With Thomas out, who do you think will win the GC?
