{"id":38142,"date":"2023-05-08T16:35:20","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T16:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/cycling-matthews-fends-off-pedersen\/"},"modified":"2023-05-08T16:39:32","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T16:39:32","slug":"cycling-matthews-wins-stage-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/cycling-matthews-wins-stage-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling-Matthews wins stage three of Giro d’Italia, Evenepoel extends lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – Australian Michael Matthews timed his final effort to perfection to win a rain-affected stage three at the Giro d’Italia on Monday, following a 216-km ride from Vasto to Melfi.<\/p>\n

Matthews and Mads Pedersen were neck-and-neck until the final corner, but the Australian, who was set up perfectly by his Jayco-AlUla team, moved in front on the home straight to emerge victorious and claim a first stage win at the Giro since 2015.<\/p>\n

“We rode all day today. They were fully committed for me to win the stage,” Matthews said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have words at the moment. It’s been such a roller coaster this year. Now already on stage three with a stage win? That’s more than I could ever dream of.”<\/p>\n

Trek\u2013Segafredo’s Pedersen finished second, ahead of Kaden Groves (Alpecin\u2013Deceuninck) and Vincenzo Albanese (EOLO-Kometa).<\/p>\n

Corratec-Selle Italia riders Alexander Konychev and Veljko Stojnic were the early pace-setters, leading the stage for the first half of the race, before being reeled in by the main group with 36 km to go.<\/p>\n

Belgian Evenepoel extended his lead after taking three bonus seconds to tighten his grip on the leader’s maglia rosa jersey, while Joao Almeida recovered from a fall in slippery conditions to move up to second.<\/p>\n

Primoz Roglic, who was eclipsed by rival Evenepoel in the intermediate sprint, climbed to third.<\/p>\n

“I went for the time bonus in the intermediate sprint because we were just there as we wanted to stay at front because the rain had made the road a bit dangerous,” Evenepoel said. <\/p>\n

“I saw Roglic and his team mates right behind us so I sprinted. It didn’t cost much energy. There were a few seconds up for grabs. One second more on Primoz and three on the others, it’s good, especially after such an easy day of racing.”<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s stage four is a 175km ride from Venosa to Lago Laceno, which features two long and manageable ascents before culminating in a steep climb and a flat finish.<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)<\/p>\n

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(Reuters) – Australian Michael Matthews timed his final effort to perfection to win a rain-affected stage three at the Giro d’Italia on Monday, following a 216-km ride from Vasto to Melfi. Matthews and Mads Pedersen were neck-and-neck until the final corner, but the Australian, who was set up perfectly by his Jayco-AlUla team, moved in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":38143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1219],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-38142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-sports","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportSportsNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ470HH-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38192,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38142\/revisions\/38192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}