Sprint king Kittel finds another gear

German powerhouse Marcel Kittel proved for the second day in succession he is currently the best sprinter in the world when he stormed to victory on stage three of the Giro d’Italia in front of over 50,000 fans in Dublin’s city centre yesterday.

The Giant-Shimano rider, who turned 26 yesterday, looked to be out of contention in the gallop for the line when the riders rounded the final bend.

Kittel was further back the peloton than he’d have liked as both Team Sky and Cannondale did superbly well to position their respective sprinters, Ben Swift and Elia Viviani, right on the nose of the peloton. But, after losing his teammates in that final frantic few hundred metres, Kittel found another gear, locked onto the wheel of Swift and when the Englishman opened up his effort, Kittel came from behind with an outrageous burst of speed to take it on the line by half a wheel. “When I could see the finish line after the final corner I gave it everything and it was really close but I just concentrated on the line and managed to come past everyone,” said the victor afterwards.

While Kittel took stage win number two after Saturday’s victory in Belfast, Australian Michael Matthews (Orica GreenEdge) held the race leader’s pink jersey for another day in what has been a “dream come true” for him and his team.

“I don’t think there’s much further I can go from here,” he beamed after. “In my first Giro d’Italia to wear the pink jersey, it’s really a dream come true.”

For the two Irish riders in the race, Nicolas Roche (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Philip Deignan (Team Sky) it was a case of job done, and the latter admitted he’ll be sad to leave Ireland, despite some atrocious weekend weather.

“This event really lived up to expectations,” he said. “I had high expectations from seeing the crowds when I first saw a Grand Tour in Dublin in 1998 and how big the sport has grown since then. But yesterday was incredible, even talking to the other riders they said they never saw crowds like that except for the Tour de France; there were so many people at the side of the road. It has been an amazing three days and I’ll be sad to go back to Italy now,” he added.

And the former said it is a case of so far so good as the prospect of warmer climes looms.

“For me to get around without any problems was the objective for the last few days,” he explained.

“You saw how crashes are part of the opening days of Grand Tours and the weather conditions didn’t help again yesterday, but for the team we came very close to a win with Ben (Swift) and I think it’s looking good for the next two and a half weeks that we can go for stage wins.”

Deignan came home in the main bunch, thus losing no time and he is 40th overall at 49 seconds while Roche is 27th at 37 seconds. Roche did have a late scare when he punctured with seven kilometres to go but managed to get a spare wheel and rejoin the bunch without conceding any time.

Yesterday’s stage took the riders 187 kilometres from Armagh to Dublin with just two fourth category climbs inside the opening 50 kilometres but nothing significant to do any real damage to the peloton.

Five riders did manage to clip away inside the opening six kilometres to form the day’s break which at one point gained over six minutes on the peloton. However, on such a flat day, with several riders fancying their chances of taking the stage win, the chase began in earnest with around 50 kilometres to go – led by big favourite Kittel’s team, Giant-Shimano, and helped also by Matthews’ Orica GreenEdge team, Roche’s Tinkoff-Saxo and BMC (protecting the interests of their big hope, Cadel Evans). That breakaway quintet were reeled in with around 10 kilometres to go.

The riders have a rest day today as they, and their considerable entourages, make the journey back to mainland Italy for tomorrow’s fourth stage from Giovinazzo to Bari and with a pan-flat 112 kilometre course to negotiate, it’s hard to see anything other than a bunch sprint being the outcome and a possible hat-trick for Kittel.