It took Riccardo Riccò less than three weeks from the end of his doping suspension mid-March to winning a race. The Italian took the third stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda. In a hectic finale, six riders slipped away from the peloton and Riccò proved the fastest, beating overall leader Michele Scarponi and Matteo Carrara to the line.
There were two things unpopular with the riders today. One was the early start time (11am, despite a short stage). The second was the category two Passo del Cavallo, which came after only seven kilometers. Miche's Przemyslaw Niemec and Fortunato Baliani as well as Frenchman Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) were quite alert, though, and crested the top ahead of the others.
It took until km 23 for the break to form. Nine riders slipped away, including Damiano Caruso (De Rosa - Stac Plastic), who took the 'surprise' intermediate sprint. The regular sprint at km 40 was taken by Pasquale Muto (Miche), ahead of Caruso and Caruso's teammate Claudio Corioni.
The Intergiro, just before the feedzone, was taken by Roberto Ferrari, showing how strong the De Rosa team was. His teammate Corioni came over the line in second, ahead of Ruslan Pydgornyy (ISD - Neri).
At km 90, Ferrari and Corioni lost contact with the group. With 25km to go, seven break riders still had 1'46, and with less than 10km to go it looked they might be able to pull it off, having 55 seconds still on the peloton.
The order over the final climb was Pydgornyy, Caruso, Fabio Taborre (Androni Giocattoli) and Muto. At less than eight to go, the gap was 38 seconds, but with four kilometers remaining, the break was gobbled up. Serpa Perez from Scarponi's team countered and reached a maximum gap of seven seconds. But he, too, was neutralized and it wasn't until the sextet around Riccò made its move that the race was finally decided.
Results stage 3 - 125,5 km
1. Riccardo Riccò (Ceramica Flaminia) in 2h48’52 (avg 42,643 km/h)
2. Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli - Diquigiovanni)
3. Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team)
4. Przemyslaw Niemec (Miche)
5. Tom Jelte Slagter (Rabobank)
6. Luca Zanasca (CDC – Cavaliere)
7. Riccardo Chiarini (De Rosa – Stac Plastic) at 0'04
8. Bartosz Huzarski (ISD – Neri)
9. Fortunato Balliani (Miche)
10. Alessandro Bisolti (Colnago – Csf Inox)
Standings after stage 3
1. Michele Scarponi (Androni Giocattoli - Diquigiovanni)
2. Riccardo Riccò (Ceramica Flaminia) at 0'17
3. Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) at 0'18
4. Przemyslaw Niemec (Miche) at 0'26
5. Luca Zanasca (Cdc Cdc – Cavaliere) at 0'36