France’s Arnaud Demare finished second on the same time as the victor, having also finished as the runner-up on stage two to Kittel.
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It’s the fifth Giro stage win of Ulissi’s career and his 20th victory overall.
“Chapeau to my teammates today”. “It was hard for them to chase down the break but they continued to work for me even if the other teams didn’t help us”. The others then kept me up front and I tried to stay up there on the final lap and Jurgen Roelandts did an incredible job from 5km to the final kilometre to keep me up there.
Dutchman Dumoulin was second at five seconds behind to reclaim the race leader’s pink jersey from Etixx sprinter Marcel Kittel, having worn it for two days in his native Holland after winning the opening stage time trial.
The Lotto-Soudal rider benefited from a lead out from team-mates Jurgen Roelandts and Giacomo Nizzolo to out-sprint Arnaud Demare (FDJ) and Sonny Colbrelli (Bardiani).
“I just wasn’t strong enough today”, Kittel said.
“For the sprint, I thought to myself, please don’t get boxed in, and I went early but I thought I would give it a go”.
Dutchman Tom Dumoulin retained the ovrall leader’s pink jersey after finishing in the pack, although Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels took four seconds off his lead which now stands at 16.
A four-man breakaway of Italy’s Daniel Oss, Spain’s Amets Txurruka and the Russian duo of Alexander Foliforov and Pavel Brutt moved away from their peloton at 40km into the stage of the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour race.
Tomorrow’s stage will see the riders push further into the mountains with the first summit finish of this year’s Giro.
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“Before the start, I said it would be a nice finish for me and it really was”.
