TOday’s third stage of Tirreno-Adriatico lead the peloton over 203 km from Cascina to Arezzo. The short but steep uphill finish suited Greg van Avermaet (BMC) best. The Belgian took the win from Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Zdenek Stybar (Etixx-QuickStep) and also moved into the Blue Leader Jersey.

A breakaway of five got away early on the Tuscan roads. Nicola Boem (Bardiani CSF), Danilo Wyss (BMC), Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Chad Haga (Giant-Alpecin) and Rick Flens (LottoNL-Jumbo) were able to built up a solid lead of over 14 minutes. In the final stages of today’s race Haga and Boem decided to drop their breakaway companions, but the effort was short lived.

The peloton approached the final kilometers of the day all together. With the steep finish ahead it were the classics riders that put the power down. With a well timed sprint Van Avermaet didn’t leave a chance to the others.

Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung just missed out on a top10 finish today. Nevertheless, a solid ride saw Steve Cummings and Edvald Boasson Hagen moving up to 7th and 9th overall, less than 20 seconds down on the new race leader.

"Todays result doesn’t really reflect what we were up to. We had planned to stay together in the final kilometers, but were not able to do so. Nevertheless, both Steve and Edvald managed to stay up there and to better their positions in the overall. To have two of our riders in the top10 in the GC of a WorldTour race is something that keeps us optimistic for the coming stages," sports director Jens Zemke said.