Giro d'Italia: Elia Viviani stripped of stage three win as Geoghegan Hart loses time
- Published
Elia Viviani took what remains his only Giro d'Italia stage win back in 2015
Italian national champion Elia Viviani was stripped of his stage three win at the Giro d'Italia for swerving in front of another rider in the final metres.
Race organisers demoted the 30-year-old after reviewing footage, with Colombian Fernando Gaviria declared the stage victor and France's Arnaud Demare moving up to second from third.
Team Ineos' Tao Geoghegan Hart lost 88 seconds after being stuck behind a crash in the last five kilometres.
Primoz Roglic kept the overall lead.
Deceuninck-Quick Step's Viviani, wearing the green, white and red national champion's jersey of Italy, crossed the line first in a chaotic bunch sprint finish but was relegated to 73rd, the back of the first group of finishers, for leaving his sprinting line and swerving in front of Trek-Segafredo's Matteo Moschetti.
Gaviria, though, refused to celebrate his win on the podium, leaving his arms behind his back. "Elia is always fair, it is hard to celebrate," he 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."
Meanwhile Deceuninck-Quick Step's team manager Patrick Lefevere tweeted: "What a ridiculous decision UCI jury".
Stage two winner Pascal Ackermann led out the bunch sprint, but kicked too early and had to settle for an upgraded third.
Roglic retained the leader's jersey, the maglia rosa, with Britain's Simon Yates remaining 19 seconds behind in second, but it was a bad day for two British riders.
Geoghegan Hart started the day in seventh, only 35 seconds behind Roglic, but the 24-year-old was held up by a crash in the final five kilometres to slip to 57th overall.
Britain's Deceuninck-QuickStep rider James Knox went down in the crash and lost even more time, falling from 20th overall to 90th.
Japanese Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane rider Sho Hatsuyama made a solo attack in the first kilometre of the 220km stage and rode on his own for 144km before being reeled in by the peloton.
Stage three results
1. Fernando Gaviria (Col/UAE Team Emirates) 5hrs 23 mins 19secs
2. Arnaud Demare (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) Same time
3. Pascal Ackermann (Ger/BORA-hansgrohe)
4. Matteo Moschetti (Ita/Trek-Segafredo)
5. Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita/Dimension Data)
Selected:
11. Simon Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott)
59. Hugh Carthy (GB/EF Education First)
84. Scott Davies (GB/Dimension Data)
112. Tao Geoghegan Hart (GB/Team Ineos)
123. James Knox (GB/Deceuninck-QuickStep)
General classification after stage three
1. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Team Jumbo-Visma) 10hrs 21mins 01sec
2. Simon Yates (GB/Mitchelton-Scott) +19secs
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita/Bahrain - Merida) +23secs
4. Miguel Angel Lopez (Col/Astana Pro Team) +28secs
5. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Team Sunweb) Same time
- Published12 May 2019
