Domenico Pozzovivo was the best climber on the course in Stage Three of the Giro del Trentino, riding to victory on the brutal Punta Veleno. The Colnago rider took the leader’s pink jersey as well as the stage, finishing 23 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor and 1:42 ahead of previous leader Mathias Frank of BMC.
“Today is a great day for me, I managed to keep calm and keep up the pace I wanted,” Pozzovivo told cyclingnews.com. “The [final] climb was so hard that I had to use the 34x29 and only in view of the GPM [top of the climb] I switched to the 34x27. With the team we were able to control the situation and when I attacked I immediately made a difference.”
Pozzovivo started the final 8.5, km, 15 percent climb in the lead group, dropped back a bit as Androni Giocattoli’s Jackson Rodriguez took the lead, then took over and rode to the front, seated most of the way and looking quite comfortable as he passed every rider and pressed on alone.
A group of Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas,) Damiano Cunego (Lampre,) José Rujano (Androni,) and Romain Kreuziger (Astana) pursued the 29-year-old Italian, but one by one faded and fell off the pace.
Sylvester Szmyd of Liquigas finished second, ahead of Lampre’s Damiano Cunego, who was fourth on the climb but caught Rujano on the brief, steep descent before the final upward slope to the line.
Stage Four is 177 km of almost constant climbing finishing with the Cat 1 Passo Pordoi, 11.5 km at 5.7 percent—possibly not steep enough for Pozzovivo to protect his lead against some of the bigger, more powerful riders.
“It’s a different slope and the team will have to work on the stretch of plain before the Pordoi,” said Pozzovivo. “Surely there will be attacks and Kreuziger especially scares me. I’m fine and I’m ready to do battle.”
| Giro del Trentino Stage 3 Results | |||
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| Rider | Team | Time |
| 1 | Domenico Pozzovivvo | Colnago CSF Bardini | 4:04:26 |
| 2 | Sylvester Szmyd | Liquigas-Cannondale | + 23 |
| 3 | Damiano Cunego | Lampre-ISD | + 1:12 |
| 4 | José Rujano | Androni-Giocattoli | + 1:20 |
| 5 | Roman Kreuziger | Astana | + 1:46 |
| 6 | Hubert Dupont | AG2R | + 2.07 |
| 7 | Bartosz Huzarski | NetApp | + 2:12 |
| 8 | José Serpa | Androni-Giocattoli |
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| 9 | Janez Brajkovic | Astana |
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| 10 | Carlos Betancur | Acqua&Sapone | + 2:34 |
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| General Classification after Stage 3 | |||
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| Rider | Team | Time |
| 1 | Domenico Pozzovivvo | Colnago CSF Bardini | 8:20:42 |
| 2 | Damiano Cunego | Lampre-ISD | + 25 |
| 3 | Sylvester Szmyd | Liquigas-Cannondale | + 49 |
| 4 | Roman Kreuziger | Astana | + 50 |
| 5 | Mathias Frank | BMC | + 1:42 |
| 6 | Carlos Betancur | Acqua&Sapone | + 1:47 |
| 7 | José Rujano | Androni-Giocattoli | + 1:48 |
| 8 | Bartosz Huzarski | NetApp |
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| 9 | Marco Pinotti | BMC |
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| 10 | Hubert Dupont | AG2R | + 2:06 |
