Peter Sagan avoids crashes to win Tirreno sprint

Peter Sagan won the third stage of the Italian Tirreno-Adriatico. The Bora-hansgrohe rider beat Elia Viviani in the final sprint

The third stage led the peloton to Montalto di Castro containing 204 kms including a number of hills but none significant difficult to prevent a final sprint.

Iuri Filosi and Kohei Uchima (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Mattia Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli), Andriy Grivko (Astana Pro Team), Mirco Maestri and Luca Wackermann (Bardiani CSF) formed the breakaway of the day and created a lead of three minutes.

The gap was down to just over a minute with 60 kilometers to go the break increased their pace leaving just Frapporti, Gougeard and Grivko in the breakaway with 45 kilometers to go.

Filosi launched a final attack, as the peloton caught the breakaway, although the Italian didn't last long and was caught 18 kilometers from the finish in Montalto di Castro.

The run in to the final sprint was complex and required good technical skills to get into the right position. Quick-Step and Dimension Data were caught in a crash in the final kilometers and played no major roll in the sprint.

World champion Sagan chose the wheel of Elia Viviani (Sky), which proved to be the right choice as he powered past the Italian to take a seemingly comfortable victory. Viviani crossed the line in second place ahead of Jurgen Roelandts of Lotto-Soudal.

In the general classification, Rohan Dennis takes the leader's jersey from teammate Greg Van Avermaet. 

2017 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 3 Top 10 Results

1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 4:51:59 
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky   
3 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Lotto Soudal   
4 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Team UAE Emirates   
5 Luka Mezgec (Slo) Orica-Scott   
6 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin   
7 Andrea Palini (Ita) Androni Giocattoli   
8 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Team UAE Emirates   
9 Georg Preidler (Aut) Team Sunweb   
10 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Sunweb

2017 Tirreno-Adriatico Overall after Stage 3

1 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 11:07:13 
2 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team   
3 Damiano Caruso (Ita) BMC Racing Team

VIDEO: 2017 Tirreno-Adriatico Stage 3 Highlights