Stage 3 of Giro d’Italia 2023 was a 213-kilometer ride from Vasto on the Adriatic coast to Melfi, which is located further south. The first part of the stage will be contested in windy conditions on a false flat along the coast. Later, the peloton leaves the coast to contest the final 45 kilometers that feature short steep climbs.

According to legend, Vasto was founded by Greek hero Diomedes. The city flourished under the Roman Empire and visitors can still see the remains of a Roman theatre, mosaics, marble columns, and Roman baths.

A duo featuring teammates Alexander Konychev and Veljko Stojnic (both Team Corratec-Selle Italia) attacked from kilometer zero and as no other riders were interested in joining, the long breakaway group of the day had been formed. 

With 120 kilometers left of the stage, the front duo had a 02:45 minute advantage over the peloton.

With 50 kilometers to go, the riders had entered rainy conditions and the advantage of the front duo had decreased to two minutes as the main peloton had increased its pace in preparation for the final part of the stage that would decide its outcome.

On the climb to Valico dei Laghi di Monticchio Stojnic left teammate Konychev behind, while Trek-Segafredo’s Natnael Tesfatsion led the main peloton. However, it did not take long before the eagerly chasing peloton swallowed Stojnic. Jayco-Alula, UAE Team Emirates and Soudal-QuickStep had sent their men to the front to set a fast pace. Ineos-Grenadiers and EF Education-EasyPost were lurking immediately behind the front men. 

Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious) attacked shortly before the peak of the climb in order to secure valuable points for the best climber classification. Jumbo-Visma’s Sepp Kuss then suffered a mechanical on the descent. He courageously tried to fix the problem while staying on his bike.

Team Jayco-Alula led the peloton on the short climb to the top of Valico la Croce and Pinot again won the sprint for the best climber classification.

UAE Team Emirates’ Joao Almeida crashed with Mads Würtz Schmidt (Israel-PremierTech), but later rejoined the peloton. 

With four kilometers left of the day’s battle, the main peloton was still together, and no riders had managed to escape. However, some riders had been dropped on the climbs. Jayco-Alula was setting a fast pace at the front.

Trek-Segafredo led the front peloton in the final kilometer closely tailed by Jayco-Alula.

Jayco-Alula’s Michael Matthews launched his sprint and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) tried to follow, but Matthews won the stage. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished third.

“To take this stage victory here in Italy is fantastic,” stage winner Matthews told Roadcycling.com shortly after finishing the stage. “I heard that Pedersen was dropped on the climb, but he rejoined, and it worked out anyhow. Today it was such a team effort that win and it was for the boys.”

In the general classification Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) leads Giro d’Italia 2023. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) is 32 seconds behind in second place and Primoz Roglic is third, 44 seconds behind the race leader.

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