It turned out to be another the bunch sprint of 60-more riders at the end of stage 3. Nicholas White (Team BridgeLane) won the stage ahead of Yuan Tang Peng (Chinese Cycling Team) and Giovanni Lonardi (Nippo Vini Fantini Faizanè). Giovanni Lonardi, the 22-year-old Italian talent, took over the yellow jersey. He has no time difference with Nicholas White (Team BridgeLane) and Jonathan Clarke (Floyd’s Pro Cycling).
From Nicholas White, the stage winner: “It is my first Tour de Taiwan, I am pretty excited. It’s definitely the race I targeted in, so yeah, to be able to come away with a win in one of the stages, I am very happy with that. Now we fight on for the next few stages and try to get well overall.
From Giovanni Lonardi, the yellow jersey: “Today I tried to win a stage, but I did third. I am happy to take this jersey because it’s important for me in my first year as a pro. I will try to take it tomorrow and the final stage. My teammates and sports director are happy about this, too. Tomorrow would be quite difficult, but I will try to do my best.”
Stage 3 is the day for GC contenders to make some time difference, but first, it was the battle for breakaway riders to hunt some points. Intermediate sprint at 39.2km and 73.93 km were taken by Yasuharu Nakajima (Kinan Cycling Team). On their way to the Cat.1 climb, leaders were soon reeled in by the peloton led by Floyd’s Pro Cycling, except Marcus Culey (Team Sapura Cycling) and Marcus Culey (Team Sapura Cycling) kept their ground in the front.
Jonas Rapp (Team Hrinkow Advarics Cycleang), Bernardo Suaza (Manzana Postobon) and Thomas Lebas (Kinan Cycling Team) joined the 2 leaders remained on the fast and furious downhill, but they were soon reined with 62 km to go. As soon as it happened, Jesse Ewart (Team Sapura Cycling) took a solo and went full gas on his way in the last hour. Heading to the finish, Floyd’s Pro Cycling picked up the pace and strung out the peloton. Jesse surrendered after the second KOM with 18km to go.
In the end, no rider was able to go clear in the bumpy terrain in the closing kilometers, the race was concluded with a bunch sprint. The way to the finish was quite straight forward. Edwin Ávila (Israel Cycling Academy) hit the front in the final 250m, but Nicholas White (Team BridgeLane) overtook the Colombian and won in the bunch sprint. Yuan Tang Peng (Chinese Cycling Team) and Giovanni Lonardi (Nippo Vini Fantini Faizanè) took second and third place.
