Gaviria takes maiden Grand Tour victory as crosswinds cut up the peloton in Giro

Fernando Gaviria sprinted to maiden Grand Tour stage win and into leader’s jersey at the Giro d’Italia after his Quick-Step Floors team split the peloton in strong crosswinds in an exciting finale to stage three in Cagliari.

A flat stage three promised more drama than its profile suggested with fewer kilometres than the previous two days and crosswinds forecast, encouraging aggressive riding.

As it would happen, just three riders went free early and despite a faster pace, the first 70km were reasonably settled with the break reaching a maximum advantage of just a three-minutes.

They were kept under control by race leaders Lotto-Soudal and eventually brought back to the bunch with 25km to go.

Tensions rose as the anticipated cross winds in the final 20km approached.

All teams, including the outfits of overall contenders, started fighting for position but it was Quick-Step Floors that were more organised than everyone, putting numbers on the front and causing a split.

With their sprinter and GC rider present, they had a lot to gain and pushed on hard to the line as everyone else tried to recover behind.

Gaviria powered from behind the wheel of team-mate Maximiliano Richeze to take a comfortable win on the flagstones of Cagliari ahead of Rudiger Selig (Bora-hansgrohe) and Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Segafredo).

.@FndoGaviria takes Stage 3 in a brutal sprint finish at @giroditalia. And he’s in pink! ? pic.twitter.com/cAoL4znXfC

— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) 7 mai 2017

Giro d’Italia 2017 – stage 3 results (Tortoli – Cagliari):

General classification after stage 3: