Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema again avoided any major time loss when they safely negotiated the tricky finale of stage 3 in Tirreno-Adriatico. Their Belkin team are now ready for the big mountain stages and claim that the former is in excellent condition.

The Belkin Pro Cycling Team is where it needs to be ahead of Tirreno-Adriatico's mountain stages. Yesterday in the short and sharp finish in Arezzo, the team's classification riders Bauke Mollema and Robert Gesink placed in the main group of favourites at six seconds.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) gained the most. He fought for the stage win with the lead group and took the overall leader's blue jersey. Mollema and Gesink, with day one's team time trial factored in, trail by 49 seconds in the overall classification.

"It was nervous and I was happy to be up there in the sprint today," Gesink said. "The overall will be decided in the next two days. We have to recover and be ready for that."

Mollema and Gesink relied on their six team-mates to deliver them to the final circuits in Arezzo. Sports Director Nico Verhoeven explained that they had to position Belkin’s leaders before the final three kilometres otherwise it would be too late.

"We knew there could be small gaps in the final sprint because the roads were narrow and uphill," Verhoeven said. “You have to be positioned right because afterwards you aren't going to move up. They did well because they had to fight with both the sprinters and GC guys. Robert sprinted well to finish 20th. I can live with it when he loses a few seconds in a sprint like this."

Other overall favourites – including Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and Richie Porte (Sky) – finished in their group. Others, like Michele Scarponi (Astana) lost time. 

Verhoeven sent his boys to bed early after dinner. The stage covers 244 kilometres and finishes uphill at Selvarotonda, a 14-kilometre climb, today.

"They received a massage and at eight o'clock, they had dinner. They have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning because the stage starts early," Verhoeven said.

"Tomorrow is important. Omega Pharma and Movistar will try to control the race. Normally Bauke and Robert go well on the longer climbs like tomorrow. Robert is in really good shape, if he has his day and everything falls into place then everything's possible."

You can read our preview of stage 4 here.