Caicedo conquers Etna, Almeida takes pink, Thomas and Yates loose time
Stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia finished atop Mount Etna was won by Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling) who attacked from the remnants of the day's breakaway on the leg-sapping ascent to solo across the finish line
Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu-KTM) finished second on the stage, 21 seconds behind, followed by Lotto-Soudal’s Harm Vanhoucke a further nine seconds back. Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) is the new overall leader after a day that saw a massive shake-up in the general classification.
Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang and two-time Giro champion Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), finished in a small group 51 seconds down on our stage-winner.
However, it was Almeida, who finished second in the opening time-trial, who took the race lead by the slimmest of margins after finishing 11th, just over a minute down on Caicedo. Stage winnerJonathan Caicedo is now second overall on the same time as Almeida, and claimed the king of the mountains jersey.
Geraint Thomas (Ineos) dropped out of GC contention before the climb, losing more than 12 minutes. due to a hard crash in the neutral zone at the start of the stage.
We've been sent footage of Thomas' crash by Scordia CT.
— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) October 5, 2020
Very unfortunate with the bidon. #Giro pic.twitter.com/q41L679zP2
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was also dropped on the climb, losing over three minutes to Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe), Nibali and Fuglsang, who all finished together, with Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) just behind.
Joao Almeida, a 22-year-old Grand Tour debutant, became the first Portuguese rider in more than three decades to lead the race said "This is a dream come true. We planned to go in the break and go for it. I felt good in some moments but bad in others and was going to give up hope. Then when Visconti attacked I realised I felt good and attacked myself."
"It’s an immense feeling of joy to win. It’s difficult to describe. I’ve worked hard for this and I have to thank the guys in the team, they helped me so much."
VIDEO: 2020 Giro d'Italia Stage 3 Highlights
2020 Giro d'Italia Stage 3 Top 10
1 Jonathan Caicedo (Ecu) EF Pro Cycling 4:02:33
2 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Vini Zabu' KTM 0:00:21
3 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:30
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:39
5 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:51
6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
8 Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers
9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling
10 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:00:56
2020 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 3
1 Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep 7:44:25
2 Jonathan Caicedo (Ecu) EF Pro Cycling
3 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren 0:00:37
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:42
5 Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:53
6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:55
7 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling 0:00:59
8 Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:11
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:01:13
10 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:15