Giro d'Italia 2014 - Stage 3

The Giro d'Italia's Irish adventure came to an end on stage three, which was another soaking wet day for the peloton. The race travelled 187 kilometres from the city of Armagh to the Republic of Ireland's capital, Dublin. It was another flat finish so another Marcel Kittel sprint victory was a likely, and it would take a brave man to bet against the German on current form. 

Maarten Tjallingii of Belkin Pro Cycling, resplendant in the blue jersey of king of the mountains leader, was the first man to attack on the stage, obviously in a bid to increase his lead in the mountains competition. He was joined by Yondor Godoy of Androni, Miguel Angel Rubiano of Colombia, Gert Dockx (Lotto-Belisol) and Giorgio Cecchinel of Neri Sottoli.

Tjallingii successfully took maximum mountains points on offer, meaning he would lead the competition until at least the end of stage five, and the rest of the breakaway worked well together whilst the peloton kept them on a relatively tight leash. Their maximum lead was six minutes, but once Orica-GreenEDGE added impetus to the peloton the break started to come back.

There were some scares for some general classification contenders as isolated falls blighted the peloton, Michele Scarponi of Astana went down, along with most of his team, but was soon back on his bike. Valerio Agnoli came off worst, but was also able to continue. Przemyslaw Niemiec also crashed, but the Lampre-Merida rider was also back on his bike.

The run in to Dublin, especially the last couple of kilometres, was dangerous considering the rain, and Giant-Shimano were struggling to put Kittel into a good position. Cannondale and Sky worked together well, and in the last couple of hundred metres it was Elia Viviani and Ben Swift sprinting for the win. Then, incredibly powerfully, Marcel Kittel fought his way back to the front, and pipped Swift on the line to take his second win in as many days.

Kittel's win was perhaps more impressive than stage two, as he came from so far back, which must disappoint Swift who came so close. Michael Matthews finished safely and would take the pink jersey back to Italy.