"I thought I had a chance" - Andrea Vendrame on beating the world's best on explosive Tirreno finish

Ben Healy attacked, Juan Ayuso attacked, Mathieu van der Poel attacked, Filippo Ganna attacked... But a small bunch sprint finish decided the outcome of the third day of Tirreno-Adriatico, with Andrea Vendrame storming to an excellent win ahead of Tom Pidcock.

"The day was difficult and long, with bad conditions," said Vendrame afterwards. "My team-mates looked after me well. I'm in good condition at the moment and it was really nice to be able to take a victory".

Short spoken but with big emotions over a victory that defines a career to many. The Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider has won twice at the Giro d'Italia in the past, but both from a breakaway. Today he directly beat his rivals in a stage that saw plenty attacks, many stars in action and going all-out in a tricky and explosive finale.

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The stage's distance and bad weather made it hard for everyone on the day and the decision of the stage could have been handled in many different ways. In the final kilometers of the final ascent there was no shortage of attacks with the likes of Ben Healy and Richard Carapaz attacking; whilst Juan Ayuso, Mathieu van der Poel and Filippo Ganna were all counter-attacking and making their own moves. The classics and climbing stars battelled but cancelled each other.

"I thought I had a chance, today. Maybe not 100%. But my director said to me on the radio, 'you can win this sprint today'. So I started to believe in myself."

In the end it did come down to a sprint, and Vendrame had the best legs out of the entire peloton to put in an impressive sprint where he held off Tom Pidcock to take his first win of the year. With Milano-Sanremo in the space of just over a week, he puts himself in the list of outsiders for a strong result.

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