2021 Baby Giro Diaries | Stage 3

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Welcome to the third of our daily Baby Giro shows, bringing a round-up of the day’s action, together with diary entries from Tom Gloag, Harrison Wood and Holdsworth-Zappi.

Stage 3 from Cesanatico-Cesanatico was 133 kilometres long and featured over 2000 metres of climbing. After a flat first 29 kilometres, the stage then included four categorised climbs in relatively quick succession, culminating in the category 1 Barbotto climb, which topped out with around 43 kilometres to go. After that, it was pretty much all downhill to the finish.

It was a day for the breakaway today with Alessio Bonelli from the Biesse Arvedi taking the spoils over Luca Colnaghi in an 8-man tussle for the win. The main bunch rolled in 26 seconds later and included our diarists Tom Gloag and Harrison Wood – who crossed the line together – as well as Trinity Racing’s two Bens – Healy and Turner. Holdsworth-Zappi’s best finisher was once again Dan Hoeks, who also finished in the main bunch.

Juan Ayuso retains the pink jersey, while Ben Turner remains in 4th overall, just 13 seconds back. Tom Gloag lies 22nd, at 21 seconds behind the leader.

Tomorrow’s pan flat 27-kilometre individual time trial should result in a GC shake-up before the race heads into the mountains on stage 5.

In our diary entries, we hear first from Tom, who had a relatively uncomplicated stage. He talks about how the heat has affected the race so far, weighs up the potential GC contenders, and says he hopes to fare better in the stage 4 time trial than he did in his last TT, when he came dead last (listeners should check out our interview with Tom from earlier in the series to find out the full story). Harrison is up next. He experienced a better day despite a small crash in which he broke his shoe and says he’s looking forward to tomorrow’s time trial, tipping his teammate Daan Hoole for the win.

No dispatch from Holdsworth-Zappi from this stage, alas.

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