Southland's Strong pipped in sprint
Corbin Strong (right, wearing blue) is pipped in a sprint to the finish by Mads Pedersen at the Giro d'Italia Stage 3 race in Italy.
Southland's Corbin Strong was pipped by Mads Pedersen in a bid to win stage three of the Giro d'Italia overnight.
The Dane's second stage victory of this year's race also saw him take back the overall leader's jersey from Primoz Roglic.
Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), who won the opening stage, took to the front in the sprint finish and held off Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) by half a wheel, with Venezuela's Orluis Aular (Movistar) finishing third, as he did in stage one.
The stage victory gave Pedersen a 10-second bonus, which means he retakes the pink jersey from race favourite Roglic, having begun the day one second behind the Slovenian.
"Wow, to have two stage victories already and now back in the pink that's exactly what we wanted today," Pedersen said.
The stage, a 160-km ride starting and finishing in Vlore and the last of three stages in Albania, was dominated by an early breakaway which included Saturday's time-trial winner, Briton Joshua Tarling (INEOS Grenadiers).
Having opened up a gap of over three minutes on the peloton, the six-man group started to splinter as the bunch began to eat into their lead, with the riders all back together for the final 16km to set up the sprint finish.
Bahrain Victorious controlled the front of the group in the final kilometres, looking to set Antonio Tiberi up for the win, but in the closing stages, Pedersen's colleagues Mathias Vacek and Giulio Ciccone had the Dane perfectly positioned.
Pedersen attacked early with Strong following but nobody was going to deny the new race leader another victory, and after relinquishing the overall lead to Roglic on Saturday (local time), he will now wear the pink jersey when the race reaches Italy.
"This was the plan from this morning to put a good pace on the long climb to control it for ourselves and give me a breather," Pedersen said.
"Then from the climb on it was controlling as far as we could and it was exactly as we wanted and then Ciccone and Vacek there doing an amazing lead out."
After Monday's rest day, Tuesday's stage four will be a flat 189-km ride from Alberobello to Lecce.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Cycling: Kiwi Ally Wollaston wins Tour of Britain
Ally Wollaston. Photo: FDJ-Suez New Zealand cyclist Ally Wollaston has won the Tour of Britain. Wollaston went into the fourth and final stage three seconds behind British rider Cat Ferguson but picked up time bonuses in the three intermediate sprints in Glasgow before gaining another four bonus seconds by finishing third on the stage. Wollaston, who rides for FDJ-Suez, beat Movistar's Ferguson by four seconds overall. "I'm a little bit overwhelmed, sorry. I'm so happy, first of all, a massive thank you to my team-mates, I couldn't have done it without them," Wollaston said. "This means the world to me, it's my first World Tour victory in GC (general classification)." Wollaston, 24, is two-time world champion on the track and last year won a silver and bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. She won a World Tour one-day race in Australia in February. "I knew I needed to get every second I could in the bonus sprints, and unfortunately, Cat was right on my wheel every time! "So it came down to the last sprint, and there was a moment of doubt halfway through that last lap where I thought 'I just cannot do this today', and my team-mates really helped me pull it together and pulled me to the front for the final." The final stage was held on an 8.4km city-centre circuit in Glasgow.
Otago Daily Times
24-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Lawson records best qualifier on season
New Zealand driver Liam Lawson has recorded his best qualifying result of the Formula One season. Lawson will start ninth on the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix after making it to the third qualifying session for the first time. His Racing Bulls teammate Isack Hadjar will start fifth on the grid with both of the Red Bull junior team cars showing good speed around the principality course. "We were able to unlock the car in Free Practice and I've been feeling pretty comfortable all weekend," Lawson said afterwards. "It was a strong qualifying for the team, we had a really fast car today but we had even more on the table, as we struggled a little bit with the tyres and had some traffic in Q3. "It will be exciting tomorrow with the new rules, we are all going to be learning and trying to make the most of every opportunity and the two stops will certainly make it interesting." Lando Norris put McLaren on pole position in track-record time, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc alongside on the front row for his home race. Norris's championship-leading teammate and rival Oscar Piastri qualified third for an often processional fixture that has been won only 10 times since 1950 by a driver starting lower than third. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest after crashing in final practice, but the seven-times world champion was then handed a three-place drop for impeding Red Bull's Max Verstappen. That moved Verstappen, twice a Monaco winner, up to fourth instead. Norris was quickest initially after two flying laps on the soft tyres in the final phase when they went out on track earlier than rivals. He then had to go even faster with a late third attempt to deny Leclerc, who had gone top with his final effort but ended up 0.109 slower, a fourth Monaco pole in five years. The Briton did it with a stunning effort of one minute 09.954 seconds around the treacherous and twisty metal-fenced streets, a big moment for his title hopes. "It's been a long time coming. I feel good. I don't think you realise how good this feels after quite a few struggles in the last few months," Norris said, whose qualifying pace has been a weak point. "Monaco is a beautiful place. The hardest track to do it and up against the hometown hero." The pole was Norris's 11th career race win, second of the season and first since the opener in Australia. Second Pitstop Norris is 13 points behind Piastri after seven races, but overtaking is very difficult in Monaco, although a second pitstop is mandatory this year, and pole position in the principality is a huge advantage. "I think I've hit more walls this weekend than in my whole career. I've just been struggling to get into the groove," Piastri commented. "We have been doing some digging this weekend and to come out with a third is pretty good." Leclerc, quickest in all three practice sessions, had been fastest through the first phase but Norris was quicker in the second. "We know that we don't quite have the car to go for wins this year but this weekend the car felt good and starting second here, it's going to be tricky to take that first place," the Monegasque said. French rookie Isack Hadjar will start fifth for Racing Bulls with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso sixth and Esteban Ocon eighth for Haas. Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson qualified ninth and Alexander Albon completed the top 10 for Williams. Qualifying turned into a nightmare for Mercedes, with Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli crashing and qualifying 15th while George Russell's car stopped in the tunnel with a suspected electrical problem. Russell, fourth in the standings and one of only four drivers to have scored in every race this season, will start 14th. The session was red-flagged with 10 minutes to run in the second phase as marshals pushed the Mercedes out into the sunlight and down an escape road. "I hit a bump on the run out of Turn One and lost power. It felt like something electronic just disconnected," Russell said. "I tried everything I could to get the car back to the garage and then restart it when I stopped in the tunnel. Unfortunately, there was nothing more we could do." Oliver Bearman, who collected a 10-place grid penalty in Friday practice for failing to slow under red flags, was only 17th fastest. Aston Martin's Lance Stroll, who already had a one-place drop from Friday practice, picked up a further three-place penalty for impeding Alpine's Pierre Gasly. Gasly should now start 17th with Argentine rookie teammate Franco Colapinto 18th. -RNZ/Reuters
1News
13-05-2025
- 1News
Kiwi second in Giro d'Italia stage, goat nearly derails another
Even goats and a dog couldn't distract Mads Pedersen. The third stage of the Giro d'Italia all went to plan for Pedersen, who won a bunch sprint to reclaim the leader's pink jersey with his second victory in this year's race. Pedersen, who rides for Lidl-Trek, edged New Zealand's Corbin Strong by half a wheel at the end of the hilly 160-kilometre leg that started and finished in the Albanian coastal city of Vlore. Orluis Aula was third. Pedersen also won the opening stage on Friday but had seen pre-race favourite Primoz Roglic take the pink jersey from him on Saturday (local time). Pedersen has moved back into pink, ahead of two more sprint stages back in Italy. The Danish cyclist has a nine-second lead over Roglic and is 14 seconds ahead of Mathias Vacek. 'Wow, to have two stage victories already and now back in the pink, that's exactly what we wanted today,' Pedersen said. "This was the plan this morning. 'We wanted to put a good pace on the long climb, to control it for ourselves and give me a chance to breathe there so I didn't need to go over the limit. Everyone from the team did a super amazing job on the climb and before. And then it was about controlling as far as we could." Pedersen's plan almost didn't go to plan, though, as a dog raced across the road in the finale, narrowly avoiding the surging, Lidl-Trek-driven peloton, with just over 2 kilometres remaining. Earlier, several goats scampered across the road, with riders having to swerve to avoid them. New Zealand cyclist Dion Smith almost ended up in a ditch. 'First time for a goat for me,' Smith said with a laugh. "I didn't have too much time to think but I could see it 10 seconds before, the policeman trying to keep them all in and then one or two started coming across and I don't know which way I was going to go, but luckily I stayed up." It was the last of three stages in Albania before the peloton makes the short transfer across the Adriatic to the Italian region of Puglia, where the race will resume on Tuesday after a rest day. The fourth stage travels through much of the heel of Italy along a mostly flat, 189-kilometre route from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Alberobello to Lecce. It should end in another bunch sprint. The race ends in Rome on June 1.
