Viviani first over line but stripped of sprint victory

Italian national champion Elia Viviani was stripped of victory as stage three of the Giro d’italia ended in a chaotic sprint in Orbetello.

Deceuninck-quickstep’s Vi via ni crossed the line first at the end of the 219km stage from Vinci but was later relegated for changing his line and blocking Trek-s egafredo’s Matteo Moschetti.

That elevated Team UAE Emirates’ Fern ando Gaviria to victor y with Groupama-fdj’s Arnaud Demare second.

It was a messy end to a stage which, for the first three-quarters, was taken at a relatively easy pace.

After a late crash had split the peloton in two, a chicane in the final kilometre uncoupled the sprint trains and left the leading contenders to battle it out for themselves.

Stage two winner Pascal Ackermann launched his sprint first but it was too soon, with Viviani, Gaviria and Arnaud De mare coming around the Bora-hansgr oh er id erin the final metres. But Vi via nih ad veered strongly left, forcing Moschetti to sit up and stop his sprint.

The crash with five kilometres left shook up the general classification, too, with Team Ineos’ Tao Geoghegan Hart the big loser. The S cot began the day 35 seconds off Primoz Roglic in pink but first fell himself and then was held up by the incident, losing 91 seconds. Lancastrian Simon Yates remains second overall, with the Mitch elton-Scott man 19 seconds behind Team Jumbo-visma’s Roglic.

With this the second of three stages of more than 200km to start the Giro following the opening time trial, the pace was down and only one rider – NippoVini Fantini-faizane’s Sho Hatsuyama – was moved to go clear of the pack.

The Japanese rider spent 144 kilometres out in front before the peloton brought him back. With 75km left other riders might normally have been tempted to go but the peloton remained together, wary of cross winds. The pace went up again before an intermediate sprint and it was then that Hart hit the deck.