Poels on the rise in Arezzo

Wout Poels finished with a flurry at Tirreno-Adriatico as stage three came down to a tricky finish in Arezzo.

Wout Poels finished with a flurry at Tirreno-Adriatico as stage three came down to a tricky finish in Arezzo.

The Dutchman navigated his way through the tight streets to finish in 10th place, continuing his consistent and motivated stage to the Italian stage race.

Greg van Avermaet emerged victorious and the BMC rider moved into a two-second race lead courtesy of bonus seconds on the line. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) started his sprint late but could only rise as far as second, the same position he occupies overall.

Team Sky kept their powder dry for much of the 203km sprint day, but did move forward with 8km to go as Ian Stannard brought Elia Viviani and Salvatore Puccio to the front.

Viviani was happy just to be in the race following a high-speed crash at the end of stage two. The Italian gamely remounted on Friday morning despite being battered and bruised.

Poels still leads the Team Sky charge on GC, sitting 21 seconds back on van Avermaet.  

Back in the saddle

The action kicked off at the scene of Thursday’s finale in Cascina. The five riders in the break were afforded a sizeable gap of 14:20 before the peloton started reeling them in.

Tinkoff-Saxo committed numbers up front and were riding hard as the race hit the first of five finishing circuits in Arezzo.

The pace intensified and it was ‘grupo compacto’ with 18km to go. A battle for position ensued and it was van Avermaet who took the uphill sprint in style.