Jonathan Milan wins chaotic reduced bunch sprint on stage 3 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana

Having been starved of opportunities to compete for the victory in the opening two stages, it was set to be a day for the sprinters on stage 3. After a crash-marred finale, in which a fall in the bunch caused a late split, it was Lidl - Trek who delivered their sprinter Jonathan Milan perfectly, as he took his first win of the season for his new team.

At the start of the day, the breakaway formed after just 5km of racing, as Guillermo Thomas Silva (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA), Asier Etxeberria (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Laurent Gervais (Project Echelon Racing), Unai Esparza (Illes Balears Arabay Cycling), Nathan Smith (Team Novo Nordisk) and Ander Okamika (Burgos - BH) went away, with their gap going close to seven minutes at one point.

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Guillermo Thomas Silva would take the maximum points and the bonus seconds at both the intermediate sprint in Albatera and the only categorised climb of the day, which was the Cat-3 climb of the Puerto de Albatera.

With around 50km to go, the gap to the breakaway stood at about two minutes, with Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier setting the pace on the front of the peloton for Lidl - Trek, in the hopes of setting up a bunch sprint for Milan.

With the finish getting closer and closer, more teams started to commit riders to the chase, with the gap to the breakaway dropping to under one minute with around 20km to go.

As the race hit some undulating terrain, the front group began to splinter with Esparza dropping and Smith beginning to lose the wheel, but just about managing to hang on as the gap to the peloton went to thirty seconds.

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With 8km to go, the breakaway lost another rider, as Laurent Gervais went too quickly into a corner and had to bunny hop a curb in order to avoid a parked car on the course before losing control of his bike and being forced to dismount.

In spite of this, the front group continued to press on as their gap to the peloton had stabilised going into the final 5km of the race and they began to believe that they could hold off the chasing bunch.

Their efforts would ultimately be in vain though, as they were caught with just over a kilometre to go, but a crash in the peloton had caused a split, with a small group of riders led by Intermarché - Wanty and Lidl - Trek going off the front.

In the end, nobody could challenge Milan, as he was delivered perfectly into the final few hundred metres, winning comfortably ahead of the remaining sprinters as nobody was able to come around him.

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