Giro del Trentino #3: Louis Meintjes 9th again and keeps white jersey

The 3rd stage of the Giro del Trentino would see Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung put in another strong performance on the day. Natnael Berhane animated the stage in the days breakaway and Louis Meintjes went toe-to-toe with favourites on the final climb.

15 riders would go clear in the early break of the day but once the road started to tilt upwards, the weaker riders were soon distanced leaving Natnael out front with 5 other riders and 40km still to race. Team Sky kept the break in check all stage long with the gap never really seeing more than 2’30”. As we hit the penultimate climb of the day, the cat 1 Redebus, Natnael and co. only had 40″ to play with.

A few attacks from the peloton soon saw the break reeled in but it was a job well done by Natnael and his breakaway mates, forcing Team Sky to chase all day and leaving them slightly vulnerable on the final cat 2 climb to the line. 4 riders would get away just before the summit of the Redebus and started the final climb with a slight advantage but it would not last.

With Team Sky running out of pace setters a number of riders would attack the main group on the ascent to the finish. Louis even got involved with attack of his own just 3km from home. The South African would be the last rider Sky would reel in before Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) launched his race winning move.

Pozzovivo would solo to the line with Mikel Landa (Astana) 2nd and Richie Porte (Team Sky) 3rd, 5″ adrift. Louis Meintjes would finish in 9th place once again, 17″ down on the stage victor and extending his lead in the best young rider competition.