Corbin Strong sprints to second place on stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia
Corbin Strong came close to taking his first-ever Grand Tour stage victory as he finished second in the reduced bunch sprint in Vlorë on stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia.
“It was a close sprint. I’ve always had confidence that I can take it to these guys in the sprint if I have a good run, and today I had a lot of confidence after stage 1,” Strong explained after the finish.
With nearly 3,000 meters of elevation, it was never a sure thing that today’s stage would finish in a bunch sprint. Especially the long Qafa e Llogarasë climb of 10.5 km with an average gradient of 7.5% proved challenging for the fast riders to get over. Strong, too, suffered on the final part of the climb, but thanks to impeccable help from teammate Jakob Fuglsang, he managed to get back to the reduced front group in time.
“I had to fight a lot on the climb and I dropped just before the top. It took a little longer to come back on these roads, but thankfully Jakob was there with me. For sure, it took out a bit of energy to chase back, but when I was chasing back on, I knew I had good legs as I felt really strong.”
In the final kilometers, Strong did well to get in the wheel of stage 1 winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek). The two went head-to-head in a fierce sprint, but despite an impressive effort, Strong had to settle for second place on the line.
“The season hasn’t gone the way I wanted it to, so I was hoping I was going to bounce back with a big win, but yeah, close but no cigar. We’ve got a really nice team here, and I think we can take confidence from today and hope we can achieve some stage wins later on,” Strong said.
Team leader Derek Gee finished in the front group as well, together with Jan Hirt and Marco Frigo, while Fuglsang crossed the line shortly after, following his big effort bringing Strong back earlier on.
IPT sports director, Sam Bewley, praised the teamwork and the impressive finish from Strong.
“We knew today could be a tricky stage and that it was more demanding than it looked on paper. It was going to be important to execute in a few different areas and today the guys were great across the board. Corbin showed some real fight today to produce a brilliant second place. It’s always a bummer to be so close to a win but the guys should also be proud of their execution and the result.”
On Monday, the peloton will leave Albania after three demanding stages before the Giro d’Italia continues in Italy with another sprint stage on Tuesday.
