A few centimetres in a really hard-fought sprint separated Jakub Mareczko and Team Southeast from the victory in the third stage of the Tour of Hainan where the young sprinter has been beaten by Sacha Modolo.

Thanks to the bonifications, Jakub Marezcko moed to fifth place in GC, only 14” behind leader Andrea Palini while Andrea Dal Col lost 1’49” after failing to make a split in the final kilometres of the stage.

Tomorrow there is another possible sprint where Mareczko could make up for the bad luck that took him out of contention in the first two stages.

“Today the team kept me in the positions of the front so we finally got a good result. Such a shame we couldn’t win," Mareczko said.