Race leader Michael Matthews has capitalised on a perfect team ride by ORICA-GreenEDGE to win the third stage of the Giro d’Italia in the pink jersey.

The inclusion of Simon Clarke and Esteban Chaves in a strong early breakaway of 24 riders and the gatekeeping duties of Clarke until the final three kilometres set up the finale for the Australian outfit.

Completing the effort, Pieter Weening contributed to the chase alongside Tinkoff-Saxo whilst Simon Gerrans provided the final lead out before Matthews completed the perfect day to cross the line ahead of Fabio Felline (Trek Factory Racing).

It was another case of déjà vu for Matthews, who also won on stage six in the Maglia Rosa last year.

“It was only a short stage but they made it quite hard for us,” Matthews said. “We were lucky we had the two guys in the break from the start so we didn’t have to chase for most of the stage.

“Then Simon Gerrans and the boys worked really hard to set me up perfectly for the sprint and I can’t thank them enough.

“The Giro d’Italia so far is a dream come true for me.

"I didn't have the Maglia Rosa yesterday, but we were all very happy to have it in the team. I was happy to take it off my team-mate Simon Gerrans. Today was very special, from the moment I put the Maglia Rosa on this morning. It gave me confidence, knowing that the entire team would work 100% for me. And it's a really nice feeling finishing it off for the team when they've done everything off for you. 

"We expected a hard day. We reconned the final 80km of this stage last Wednesday, when we arrived at the Giro d'Italia, and we expected a hard day. We didn't really want such a big breakaway to go, but it worked out well for us because we had two good climbers there, and I had confidence that, if it stayed away, they might do well. If it came back, I knew they'd work for me in the final. It turned out better that we had planned. 

"Me and my whole team here have really fond memories of the Giro d'Italia last year, when we might have been able to achieve even more. So this year we have all guns blazing and we want to do everything we can. We have riders here for every discipline, and we can achieve a lot with the team we have brought here. We are super confident, and if a stage suits one rider, the rest of the team will work 100% for him. We don't have just one leader, so we can go for all sorts of different types of stage.

"I dedicate this win to my team and to Pozzovivo, and I hope he's OK."

The victory was ORICA-GreenEDGE’s second of the 2015 Tour, following the team time trial win on the opening stage. It ensures the race lead for another 24hours, bonus seconds giving Matthews a six second lead over teammate Clarke.

“We couldn’t imagine this Giro starting any better,” sport director Matt White said. “You come to races with plans and goals and we have achieved them so far.

“Our team has always been very tight, they are very well drilled and they are very loyal to each other and that’s a big factor we have.

“It’s one thing having a plan but you need guys with the ability and commitment to carry it out, they all should be very proud of their ride.”

The lumpy stage three was expected to be a tough one and when the strong breakaway went on a rise within the first five kilometres, there was no question that would be the case.

Amongst the lead group was ORICA-GreenEDGE’s Chaves and Clarke, whilst Tinkoff-Saxo stood up for the bulk of the chasing to protect their general classification ambitions.

As the gap sat under a minute both the break and the peloton dwindled from behind as the parcours took its toll on riders.

Over the final climb of the day, a category two peaking with less than 45km to go, Pavel Kochetkov (Team Katusha) led from his former breakaway companions who splintered under the pressure of the ascent.

Kochetkov led for a long time before three riders, including Clarke as the gatekeeper, bridged across to make a new group of four riders in front with ten kilometres to go.

Clarke continued to follow the moves until eventually the race came back together with three kilometres to the finish for the reduced bunch sprint.

Tomorrow’s stage four begins in Chiavari before moving through three category three climbs on the 150km journey to La Spezia, the last of which peaks inside the final ten kilometres.