Magnier wins again in Sofia as Giro d'Italia stage 3 goes down to a photo finish

Paul Magnier has won stage 3 of the Giro d'Italia to add to his stage 1 victory. After 175 kilometres from Plovdiv to Sofia, the final of the three Bulgarian stages gave the sprinters a second shot at glory. Jonathan Milan launched his sprint first, but the Italian was outmanoeuvred by Magnier coming through the middle. Dylan Groenewegen finished third.

Magnier's stage 1 win had given France its first pink jersey wearer of the race — though he lost it after just one day. Jonas Vingegaard put the hammer down in stage 2, but it was Guillermo Thomas Silva (XDS Astana) who took the surprise victory. The Uruguayan became the first rider from his country to win a Grand Tour stage, making history immediately on arrival.

But the bigger story had been the crashes. Stage 1 saw the sprint blown apart by a mass pile-up, with Groenewegen and Kaden Groves among those caught up. Stage 2 brought down thirty riders, with Santiago Buitrago, Jay Vine, Marc Soler and Andrea Vendrame all abandoning, and Adam Yates and Derek Gee-West among the most seriously affected.

Stage 3 looked set to be another day for the fast men, with barely a climb in sight — bar one midway through the stage: a 9.2-kilometre ascent at 5.3% that could yet cause some stress for the (already battered) sprinters. In the first 80 kilometres, however, it was first the turn of a three-man breakaway.

Diego Sevilla (Polti VisitMalta) went along for the third consecutive day as mountains leader. The Spaniard already had 24 KOM points and was hoping to add a few more on the Borovets Pass. He was joined by teammate Alessandro Tonelli and Manuele Tarozzi of Bardiani CSF 7 Saber. Together they built a maximum lead of well over three minutes.

Several sprint teams joined forces in the peloton to control the chase, among them Soudal Quick-Step for Magnier and Unibet Rose Rockets for Groenewegen. Together they kept the gap at around two and a half minutes, and it stayed that way for a long stretch — because on the Borovets Pass, the sprinters were never really put under pressure.

Arnaud De Lie struggled and was dropped, but with the help of his teammates and former colleague Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike) he made it back on the descent. From there the pace ticked up a notch — but with the peloton in no rush to swallow the break too early, the three leaders still had a full minute in hand entering the final 20 kilometres.

Inside the final 10 kilometres, the moment came to reel in the trio at the front. Sevilla could reflect with satisfaction on six climbs' worth of maximum mountain points across the first three days, while Tarozzi claimed some consolation with a win in the last intermediate sprint of the day. Still, they were allowed to keep hoping right until the final kilometre, with the peloton flooding across the full width of the road behind them.

Then it was time for the sprint — and in the closing kilometres, the riders even rolled across Bulgarian cobblestones to reach the line. With 500 metres to go, the fast men were rattling over the stones, and in that juddering, chaotic charge it was an epic three-way battle between Milan, Magnier and Groenewegen. In the end, Magnier's points jersey crossed the line first in a photo finish — the Frenchman's perfectly timed bike throw making all the difference.