Mads Pedersen ceded pink to Primoz Roglic after stage two’s time trial but was resplendent in the Giro d’Italia leader’s jersey once more after winning stage three to double up on sprint victories.
The Lidl-Trek rider became the first Dane to wear pink to victory on stage one in Albania and took the honours at the end of a 160km run to Vlore on Sunday.
His win took him ahead of Roglic in the general classification by nine seconds thanks to the ten seconds available on the line, having started the day one behind. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider missed out on the stage win in Saturday’s 13.7km time trial – won by Ineos Grenadiers youngster Josh Tarling for his first Grand Tour stage victory – but did enough to take the overall lead.
Corbin Strong and Orluis Aular rounded off the podium in Vlore, with Pedersen’s Lidl-Trek teammate Mathias Vacek – wearing the best young rider’s white jersey – third in the overall standings.
The jersey changing hands means Pedersen has the chance to win in pink for the first time on Tuesday’s flat stage to Lecce as the race reaches Italian soil and the sprinters get another run-out.
Stage three results
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek) in 3:49:07
2) Corbin Strong (Israel PremierTech)
3) Orluis Aular (Movistar)
4) Brandon Rivera Smith (Ineos Grenadiers)
5) Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious)
6) Stefano Oldani (Cofidis)
7) Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)
8) Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane)
9) Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana)
10) Davide De Pretto (Jayco AlUla), all at same time
General classification
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), in 7:42:10
2) Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +9”
3) Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +14”
4) Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +21”
5) Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +25”
6) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +26”
7) Max Poole (Team Picnic PostNL) +33”
8) Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) +34”
9) Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) +36”
10) Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +40”
Points classification
1) Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 54
2) Alessandro Tonelli (Polti VisitMalta) 35
3) Orluis Aular (Movistar) 24
4) Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers) 18
5) Corbin Strong (Israel PremierTech) 18
King of the mountains (KOM) classification
1) Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) 28
2) Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis) 18
3) Pello Bilbao (Movistar) 12
4) Alessandro Tonelli (Polti VisitMalta) 11
5) Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) 9
Young riders’ classification
1) Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), in 7:42:24
2) Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +11”
3) Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +12”
4) Max Poole (Team Picnic PostNL) +19”
5) Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) +20”
