"No pain from the crash. Only thing disturbing me was achilles pain. Things come back."

Those were the words of Astana's Tanel Kangert after stage three at the Giro d'Italia. Kangert recovered in peace to start the first week of work at the Giro, a short and creative route through the Sestri Levante and bold Italian coastline in the north Tyrrhennean sea coast and the forested port town ringing lake and lagoon.

On a set of intermediate mountains that could test a team's preparations for further work later in the competition, teammates Paolo Tiralongo, Luis Leon Sanchez and Davide Malacarne all took turns at the front of a flat finish to resemble a sprint team leadout train. Paolo Tiralongo finished a happy and surprising fifth, Sanchez ninth and team leader Fabio Aru same time in twelfth with all cards still face down on the spinning poker table that will be the next three weeks.

"Today it was a very nervous stage, the route did not give room to recover except for the final part," Tiralongo said. "At Team Astana we rode very well, always in front. In the end we made a small train for the sprint, I tried again and got a 5th place, not bad for a climber."