Jasper Philipsen wins stage 3 of Tirreno-Adriatico after echelon danger

Stage 3 of Tirreno-Adriatico was a very tense one in the finale as the peloton split, but in the end a bunch sprint decided the stage, with Jasper Philipsen emerging victorious.

A calm and mostly flat day, few riders had intentions of burning their legs early in the day. EOLO - Kometa got two riders in the day's breakaway and Mattia and Davide Bais. The duo of brothers was caught with 70 kilometers to go as the peloton had some strong pace due to tension over the wind, but also as there was no real objective out front.

As was the case yesterday the roads were packed and filled from early on as teams battled for the smoothest way into the finish in Foligno. With 14 kilometers to go Jumbo-Visma attempted to create echelons as the tension piled on. With big pushes from Wout van Aert and Dylan van Baarle a group of around 20 riders went clear of the rest of the peloton.

With just over 4 kilometers to go several riders managed to bridge across as the pace was inconsistent in both groups, shortly after the peloton managed to get back together, with a large bunch sprint once again the most likely scenario.

Everything lined up for the sprint, with Alpecin - Deceuninck doing a great leadout despite their limited resources. Mathieu van der Poel did a textbook leadout for Jasper Philipsen who launched his sprint and was not closely matched by anyone, taking his first win of the season. He beat Phil Bauhaus and Biniam Girmay who finished second and third on the day.