Taco Monday: escapee van der Hoorn victorious on Stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia

For the majority of Monday’s third stage of the Giro d’Italia, on the 90th anniversary of the maglia rosa, it looked like Peter Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team was delivering him to his second Giro victory. But it was Taco van der Hoorn who earned the win in his and his Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux team’s Grand Tour debut. For the second day in a row, a Grand Tour debutante triumphed. Filippo Ganna kept the pink jersey.

The Course

This wouldn’t be a straightforward sprinter’s stage as on Sunday. Monday’s 190 km held three categorized climbs and one uncategorized, bonus-second climb in the final 70 km. How many sprinters would survive to Canale? There was some rain.

An interesting profile, to say the least, for today's #Giro stage, from Biella to Canale. That final climb has some hard gradients and could be used as a launch pad by the riders going for the victory. pic.twitter.com/dkzghizSgP

— Deceuninck-QuickStep (@deceuninck_qst) May 10, 2021

An octet of fugitives flew the coop early. Among them was the mountains classification leader Vincenzo Albanese (Italy/EOLO-Kometa), who meant to defend his one KOM point, and van der Hoorn.

Maglia Azzurra @BancaMediolanum ?

? @vincenalban #Giro pic.twitter.com/x8ER71mlT9

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 10, 2021

The youngest rider in the Giro since 1930, Ukrainian Andrii Ponomar (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), was also flying his flag.

The Cat. 3 Piancanelli was first up. Ponomar tried to light out for glory before it even began. Albanese’s teammate Samuele Rivi led the way, leaving Albanese to take the maximum points. Next on the menu was Cat. 4 Castino, where Albanese prevailed again.

Bora-Hansgrohe mobbed the front of the peloton and shed sprinters like Dylan Groenewegen, Sunday’s winner Tim Merlier and Caleb Ewan.

Would the breakaway survive to the top of Cat. 4 Manera? It hung tough, but Albanese was third over the crest.

On the uncategorized final climb, a few fugitives were still off the front with a wee gap. A move came from the peloton to link up with the remnants of the break. No longer did Bora-Hansgrohe whip along the reduced field.

With 6 km to go, escapee Taco van der Hoorn was solo and increasing his gap. However, the Dutchman’s lead was only 15-seconds at the red kite.

Taco kept his gap and was delighted with his triumph. Sagan was third.

Tuesday’s stage will be the next GC battle.

2021 Giro d’Italia Stage 3
1) Taco van der Hoorn (The Netherlands/Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) 4:21:29
2) Davide Cimolai (Italy/Israel Start-up Nation) +0:04
3) Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.

2021 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Filippo Ganna (Italy/Ineos Grenadiers) 8:51:29
2) Tobias Foss (Norway/Jumbo-Visma) +0:12
3) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +0:20