Fernando Gaviria wins at Tirreno-Adriatico as Zdenek Stybar leads

Colombia's Fernando Gaviria claimed the first UCI WorldTour win of his career by sprinting to victory on stage three of Tirreno-Adriatico, as team-mate Zdenek Stybar retained the overall lead.

Gaviria (Etixx - Quick-Step) launched his sprint with 250m to go and held on to beat the charging Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) into second place and Elia Viviani (Team Sky) into third.

The victory came just six days after Gaviria won gold in the omnium at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London.

Stybar finished in the peloton to remain top of the general classification, nine seconds ahead of BMC Racing duo Damiano Caruso in second and Daniel Oss in third.

Gaviria said: "The last kilometer wasn't as tough as we thought - that's why many sprinters made it over that small climb. I had a very strong team, who helped me a lot before I jumped into [Peter] Sagan's wheel and launched my sprint.

"I got to experience this special feeling, of notching my maiden WorldTour victory. Of course, winning the omnium world title was also very emotional, but these are two victories which can't be compared."

The seven-day race continues on Saturday with a rolling 216km fourth stage from Montalto di Castro to Foligno.

Stage three result

1 Fernando Gaviria (Col) Etixx - Quick-Step, 4:17:28

2 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge, same time

3 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky, st

4 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff, st

5 Leigh Howard (Aus) IAM Cycling, st

General classification

1 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Etixx - Quick-Step, 9:51:18

2 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing, +9sec

3 Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing, same time

4 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing, st

5 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing, st