Michele Scarponi (Lampre) bounced back from a disappointing performance in yesterday's mountaintop finish to be a main protagonist in today's third stage of the Giro del Trentino. The 2011 Giro winner ended 3rd on a day in which it was never the plan to go on the attack.

Michele Scarponi arrived at the Giro del Trentino with the hope of seeing some strong progress in his form after a high altitude training camp on the Etna volcano. Just two weeks away from the start of the Giro, he got a huge disappointment in yesterday's hard summit finish as he was unable to follow the best and lost more than 4 minutes to stage winner Kanstantsin Siutsou (Sky).

Today the Lampre captain put the disappointment behind him and entered the day's decisive 11-man break. On the day's final climb, he even managed to drop his companions but Ivan Santaromita (BMC) and Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) managed to rejoin the 2011 Giro winner and beat him in the final sprint.

It seemed to be a planned move to put behind yesterday's disappointment but that was actually not the case. The Italian's participation in the move was more of a coincidence and despite his strength on the final climb he still feels that the shape is not where it should be.

"Early in the race it was not in the plans to join the break, but the situation evolved and I found myself in a group of 11 athletes with a good companion in Durasek," he said "Then I set the goal of going to the finish. The sensations were moderate and I feel that I have room for growth."

Many had expected the stage to be an easier affair as it was stuck in between to hard summit finishes. Nonetheless, the peloton exploded on the day's first climb, the Fai della Paganella, and it ended up being a very demanding day with a diminished peloton arriving at the end.

"What should have been a less demanding stage was actually a tough one for all riders," sports directot Fabrizio Bontempi says. "The pace on the Fai della Paganella and the great condition of the escapess have made the race. Durasek and Scarponi were very strong, and it is too bad that Michele was not able to win. After a bad day yesterday, today gave positive signals but it was still unfortunate that we did not win."

Scarponi now turns his attention to tomorrow's hard final stage in which he hopes to find further improvement while also assisting teammate Przemyslaw Niemiec who is 10th overall.

Starting at 14.15, you can follow all the action on CyclingQuotes.com/live.