Mark Cavendish made it two British wins in two days at the Giro d’Italia as he out-sprinted the peloton to win the third stage on Sunday in Hungary.
The 36-year-old, riding the race for the first time since 2013, hit the front with 300m to go and held off Arnaud Demare and Fernando Gaviria to take his 16th Giro stage win.
It follows Simon Yates’ win in the time trial on Saturday.
Monday sees the riders fly to Italy for stage four in Sicily on Tuesday.
Dutch rider Mathieu van der Poel finished 17th to retain the overall lead by 11 seconds from Yates.
But the day belonged to Cavendish who was given the perfect lead-out by QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team-mate Michael Morkov in a stage where the pace quickened dramatically over the closing kilometres.
“I have an incredible final group and they delivered today,” said Cavendish.
“In the end I had to go with 300m to go and I’m just happy I could hang on that long for the win.
“I love the Giro and racing here, so it’s great to be back.
“I’m not very young anymore, I’m usually in gear after four to five days, but at the end of the day I’m still the old Cavendish.”
Stage three result:
1. Mark Cavendish (GB/QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl) 4hrs 56mins 39secs
2. Arnaud Demare (Fra/Groupama – FDJ) Same time
3. Fernando Gaviria (Col/UAE Team Emirates)
4. Biniam Girmay (Eri/Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert Materiaux)
5. Jakub Mareczko (Ita/Alpecin-Fenix)
6. Edward Theuns (Bel/Trek Segafredo)
7. Simone Consonni (Ita/Cofidis)
8. Caleb Ewan (Aus/Lotto-Soudal)
9. Alberto Dainese (Ita/Team DSM)
10. Phil Bauhaus (Ger/Bahrain Victorious)
General classification standings
1. Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned/Alpecin-Fenix) 9hrs 43mins 50secs
2. Simon Yates (GB/Team BikeExchange-Jayco) +11secs
3. Tom Dumoulin (Ned/Jumbo-Visma) +16secs
4. Matteo Sobrero (Ita/Team BikeExchange-Jayco) +24secs
5. Wilco Kelderman (Ned/Bora-hansgrohe) Same time
6. Ben Tulett (GB/Ineos Grenadiers)
7. Tobias Foss (Nor/Jumbo-Visma) +28secs
8. Bauke Mollema (Ned/Trek-Segafredo) Same time
9. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain-Victorious) +29secs
10. Mauro Schmid (Sui/Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) Same time
