🎥 Alongside Van der Poel, Philipsen and Del Grosso also look in form — teammate has scary moment with motor

Van der Poel settled it almost single-handedly in the finale, after being perfectly positioned by his teammates on the key climb. The Dutchman then powered to victory with an impressive acceleration in the sprint, ahead of new race leader Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X).

In the third group — just 26 seconds behind the front — Jasper Philipsen crossed the line as well. The Belgian sprinter, who already showed strong form in Opening Weekend, appears to have found his legs in time for Milan–San Remo. Philipsen won the sprint for 25th place, beating Wednesday’s stage winner Tobias Lund Andresen (Decathlon CMA CGM).

Tibor Del Grosso (58th) finished in that same group of around thirty riders. That made him the second rider in the results to come from the early breakaway, behind the strong Norwegian Jonas Abrahamsen, who took 22nd.

“It was a shame there was so much poker at the front, because I had good legs,” Abrahamsen said afterwards to CyclingProNet. “My legs felt really good, but because of that cat-and-mouse we didn’t make it over the final climb.” https://www.youtube.com.

For Alpecin-Premier Tech, there was also a nasty moment for Austrian rider Michael Gogl. After finishing his work towards the end of the stage, he crashed following a small incident with a motorbike.

Gogl stayed seated on the asphalt for a while in pain, but ultimately did finish the stage. “This is not exactly how I expected my day to go…,” he wrote on social media. The team later communicated that it was limited to bruises and abrasions, and that Gogl would likely start on Friday.