“The Jury watched the video footage of the sprint and has decided to relegate Elia Viviani. The winner is Fernando Gaviria,” organisers said.
Deceuninck-Quick Step's Viviani appeared to deviate from his line of sprinting to block out Matteo Moschetti of Trek-Segafredo, but Team UAE Emirates' Gaviria, said the Italian deserved to win.
“Elia is always fair, it is hard to celebrate,” Gaviria said. “When he moved to the left, he did it without bad intention. To me, he is the clear winner of today’s stage. I feel bad for him.”
Gaviria left his arms behind his back on the podium, refusing to celebrate. Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) was second and Pascal Ackermann (BORA-hansgrohe) third.
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) retained the overall leader’s pink jersey at the end of a 220km stage from Vinci that ended in chaotic fashion.
Nervous Peloton
Crosswinds and a sharp left-hand turn in the finale made the peloton nervous and a crash with 5.5km left split the bunch in two, with Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team INEOS) losing 1min 28sec after he was caught on the wrong end.
Geoghan Hart, who was seventh overall after a good opening time trial, dropped to 57th, over two minutes behind Roglic.
The maglia rosa was always well positioned in the bunch, being perfectly sheltered by his Jumbo-Visma team-mates.
“With only one rider in the breakaway, it made it a very long stage. It enabled me to enjoy the Maglia Rosa (jersey) a bit more,” he said.
“I wasn’t really scared of the crosswinds at the end because we are a team from Holland so we know how to deal with the wind.”
Richard Carapaz (Movistar), fourth in last year’s Giro, lost 46 seconds after suffering a late mechanical problem.
Roglic leads Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) by 19 seconds and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) by 23 going into the fourth stage, a 235km ride from Orbetello to Frascati.
Primoz Roglic holds pink for another stage. (Supplied) Source: Supplied
